Bill O’Reilly and his two henchwomen used a lawsuit against the so-called Center for Medical Progress to smear Planned Parenthood with all the same falsehoods and deceptions the CMP promoted - plus some new ones.
As Media Matters explains:
CMP’s videos used footage of undercover activists’ conversations with Planned Parenthood officials and staff members of private, for-profit biomedical procurement companies. The videos were deceptively-edited to cut out important context to make it appear that Planned Parenthood officials were “sell[ing] the body parts of aborted fetuses,” and agreeing to alter abortion procedures to profit from the sale of fetal tissue. The complete footage released on CMP’s website debunked the sensationalist claims of the deceptively-edited videos, showing that Planned Parenthood officials were discussing routine legal reimbursement for costs associated with fetal tissue donation, not selling “baby parts” for profit.
Furthermore, MSNBC notes, “At least eight state investigations have turned up no impropriety from Planned Parenthood.”
But host O’Reilly described the videos as having “explained how some Planned Parenthood executives are harvesting the organs of dead babies and selling them.”
Guest Kimberly Guilfoyle, an attorney, described the lawsuit by saying it alleges CMP “used fraud to be able to get in and gain access and make these videos, …they should be estopped from doing so, that they should give the true identity and therefore these videos should be banned and they’re requesting damages.”
“So this is BS,” O’Reilly interrupted. “This is just BS.”
Lis Wiehl, the other guest and also an attorney, said, "RICO [racketeering charges] is definitely a stretch” but she also suggested that some of the other claims, such as sending emails “pretending to be something you’re not” may be legitimate.
Nobody in the No Spin Zone noted that the damages sought, as MSNBC reported, are based on claims that “Planned Parenthood providers have faced death threats, been forced to move or go into hiding and been picketed at their homes.” MSNBC also reported:
The lawsuit also says that in the months of July and August alone, there were 849 reported incidents of vandalism at Planed Parenthood centers, a nine-fold increase compared to the month before. It points to attempted arsons at Planned Parenthood centers in Illinois and New Orleans, as well as the November 27, 2015, shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs that killed three people and injured nine. Robert Lewis Dear, who took credit for the killings, told a Denver TV station [last] week, “I picked Planned Parenthood because it’s murdering little babies.”
Apparently, this “fair and balanced” panel agreed with O'Reilly that Planned Parenthood deserved this kind of terror.
Putin-admirer Guilfoyle claimed CMP was within its First Amendment rights, “doing investigatory journalism, getting to the heart of the matter.”
O’Reilly interrupted again. “Here’s what this is all about. Planned Parenthood, with attorneys on staff, are trying to bankrupt this crew which probably doesn’t have the money to defend it. And they bring it in San Francisco, which is the most liberal federal court in the nation.”
Nobody mentioned how Republicans used the CMP videos - which Fox repeatedly hyped - to try to bankrupt Planned Parenthood.
“Is there anything more loathsome than Planned Parenthood, at this point?” O’Reilly “asked.”
“It’s pretty bad,” Wiehl agreed.
What’s really loathsome is a cable news network using lies and distortions to rob women of healthcare because of an ideological agenda.
Watch it above, from the January 19 The O'Reilly Factor.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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