7.14.2015

Dana Loesch defends Center for Medical Progress's out-of-context gotcha smear of Planned Parenthood

Dana Loesch, who has a history of being an ardent opponent of Planned Parenthood, was one of many right-wing media voices to falsely accuse Planned Parenthood of "selling body parts."

Loesch's unhinged lies smearing Planned Parenthood:






































Former Texas Governor and 2016 GOP candidate Rick Perry on the story:




Louisiana Gov. and 2016 GOP candidate Bobby Jindal wants to probe Planned Parenthood over the nonscandal:




Texas Senator and 2016 GOP candidate Ted Cruz supports defunding Planned Parenthood over this nonscandal:




Now, the facts:

JGibson, yours truly, at Daily Kos:
This story has been reported-- carelessely without regard for the truth in anti-choice activist circles--  as yet another way to attack Planned Parenthood... this time for allegedly "selling body parts." The offender is right-wing anti-choice front group The Center For Medical Progress.

Differences between the Centers for Medical Progress, also from the same DKos article:
The Center for Medical Progress is dedicated to articulating the importance of medical progress and the connection between free-market institutions and making medical progress both possible and widely available throughout the world. We encourage the development of market-based policy alternatives to sustain medical progress and promote medical innovation.
Conservative O'Keefe-esque Citizens For Medical Progress (not affiliated w/ Manhattan Institute for Policy Research):
The Center for Medical Progress is a group of citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs:
Well, there’s another bogus, heavily edited James O’Keefe-style propaganda video being frantically circulated all over the right wing media and blogs, attacking Planned Parenthood. Yes, again. 
I’m not going to embed this deceptive video, but here’s a link to it at YouTube if you really think you need to see it. But the picture above shows the single most relevant and important part of it — this Planned Parenthood director was talking about standard tissue donations, the kind that are done every day throughout the medical profession. The “pro-life” groups circulating this bogus story are doing their best to portray this as something it’s not: selling body parts. They’re not selling body parts or “harvesting organs;” this is a flat out lie.
Johnson hits it right on the nail with this fauxposé to slime Planned Parenthood.

Robin Marty at Cosmopolitan:
I've read the emails. I've watched the short-version video. I've read the website and the other anti-abortion action groups' press releases. I've even poked through all of the primary sources posted so far in the "Document Vault." 
Now, frankly, I'm just going to yawn. 
A new video is making the rounds through social media and conservative news sites, claiming that Planned Parenthood of America is "selling" fetal tissue and organs. The allegations come from the Center for Medical Progress, which says it has conducted a years-long investigation into Planned Parenthood, and released both an eight-minute edited highlights video and nearly three-hour-long video involving a lunch meeting with Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
If the mode of release – massive long "undercover" video footage condensed down to about five minutes of actual meeting dialogue often clipped together and out of order and context -- sounds familiar, it should. The tactic was popularized by Live Action, an anti-abortion policy group founded by Lila Rose, and undercover, edited videos – especially those targeting Planned Parenthood – are her forte. Meanwhile, David Daleiden, the media contact for the project, is the former director of research for Live Action, and according to Breitbart News he held that position for five years and "is no stranger to undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood."
[...] 
Abortion opponents may be winning in their own media circles with this PR campaign against Planned Parenthood, but when it comes to actually proving illegal activity, at this point their evidence is sorely lacking.

More on Loesch's deliberate falsehoods on the war on women, attacks on [Democratic/liberal] women, birth control, and pro-choice viewpoints:
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