How Will Planned Parenthood’s Media Shills Explain Away the Newest Undercover Video?

They've had plenty of practice explaining away the first two videos, but the trick is getting harder and harder.

By Rachel Alexander Published on July 28, 2015

How will Planned Parenthood’s mainstream media defenders spin this one down the memory hole? The Center for Medical Progress has released the third Planned Parenthood sting video this morning, and it’s equal parts harrowing and revealing.

The new video, the first in a promised documentary web series, includes fresh admissions from Planned Parenthood leadership about the illicit pricing structure of aborted baby body parts, and introduces Holly O’Donnell, a phlebotomist who worked for biotech start-up StemExpress, who describes how Planned Parenthood benefited financially from StemExpress:

For whatever we could procure, they would get a certain percentage. The main nurse was always trying to make sure we got our specimens. No one else really cared, but the main nurse did because she knew that Planned Parenthood was getting compensated.

Let the furious spinning recommence. The left-leaning mainstream media has come out in full force defending Planned Parenthood from the undercover videos exposing the organization for selling fetal body parts. Unable to refute the plain evidence, the approach of these media outlets is to deflect as well as gloss over or ignore the incriminating statements made by the Planned Parenthood doctors in the videos. The articles smoothly divert the focus onto side issues, like pointing out that The Center for Medical Progress, which made the videos, posed as a stem cell organization as part of its undercover work. (Horror! Undercover investigative journalists going undercover!)

The New York Times editorial board took the abortion doctors’ self-serving statements at face value while ignoring their contradictory statements, in a piece called “The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood.” The editors complained that one of Dr. Nucatola’s statements from the first undercover video was left out of the edited video clip, the part where she said, “This is not something with any revenue stream that affiliates are looking at.” But then they never bothered to try and rectify the fact the statement didn’t fit with her other remarks in the video. Nucatola discussed how the price per body part varies and implied that the price went up where there was more demand — clearly not simply referring to costs only but profits as well.

The Times editorial also didn’t bother addressing the other evidence of likely illegal activity Nucatola discussed, where it sounds like she is discussing performing partial-birth abortions.

An article in Mother Jones focused on past efforts of pro-lifers to investigate Planned Parenthood, virtually ignoring the abortion doctors’ statements in the videos and blindly repeating Planned Parenthood’s assertion that mentions of price were merely referring to shipping and storing fetuses. The article also tries to conflate partial-birth abortion with “late-term abortion,” implying that the Planned Parenthood abortion doctors were likely referring to the latter, in this way suggesting the procedures could be legal.

At The Daily Beast, an article entitled “Hoaxers Fail to Nail Planned Parenthood in New Video” put in a little more analysis, but still did not address the fact that the doctors both made statements contradicting themselves. The author merely decided she agreed with one version of the doctors’ statements instead of the other, namely that they were only charging costs; and then the writer asserts — providing no evidence other than her opinion — that the costs seemed reasonable.

Feminist Amanda Marcotte, writing for Slate, took the approach taken by The New York Times, claiming that the one statement left out of the edited video by Dr. Nucatola refuted all of her other statements. As for the second undercover video, she dismisses Dr. Gatter’s comment about wanting to make enough money from selling fetal body parts to buy a Lamborghini, but doesn’t explain how she knows there is no profit motive at all. Gatter’s demeanor was cold and calculating enough that it seemed fairly realistic that she was interested in making a decent profit from sales, even if the prospect of affording a Lamborghini was only a fantasy. Predictably, Marcotte ends the article attacking The Center for Medical Progress and others who have attempted to investigate Planned Parenthood.

There are more undercover videos to be released. How long will the left-leaning media continue to defend Planned Parenthood. Bring out the salad and red wine — er popcorn. Things are about to get very interesting as more truth comes out.

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