Oops! NPR Mangles Planned Parenthood Sting Story, Is Forced to Correct
The pro-life group Live Action has posted an expose that should be deeply embarrassing to Planned Parenthood. In a visit taped on January 11, an office manager at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Perth Amboy, New Jersey greets a man and woman posing as a pimp and a prostitute by carefully explaining they want “as little information as possible” as they offer their contraceptive and abortion services, even as this pimp described bringing in underage girls as illegal aliens to be his sex workers. At NPR's blog The Two-Way, reporter Eyder Peralta picked this up and promptly mangled the facts. The headline was “Group Behind ACORN Undercover Videos Sets Up Planned Parenthood 'Sting.'” Yes, “sting” may be what you call it when liberal journalists take a hidden camera to expose malfeasance, but if the videographers are pro-life, the word goes into quotes. Peralta began: “The same group that went undercover at ACORN offices back in 2009 is now going after Planned Parenthood.” Wrong. NPR was forced to correct: “An earlier version of this post stated Live Action was associated with James O'Keefe. They are not, and O'Keefe was not a part of this undercover video.” But Live Action is still upset at the new headline: “Conservative Group Sets Up Planned Parenthood 'Sting.'” They claim the label is wrong : This title is still false as we have never identified ourselves as a “conservative” group. We are not conservative or liberal. Just because polls show that more conservatives are pro-life than liberals does not make our pro-life organization conservative. That is illogical. We are simply pro-life. So NPR, please stop arrogantly imposing your labels upon us. Political reporters may find it natural to assign pro-life activists to the right, but not only are there pro-life Democrats and even pro-life socialists — there's the problem that political reporters almost never describe “abortion rights” groups as liberals. In a 1998 study of newspaper labeling, MRC found about pro-lifers were described as “conservative” or some variant of it in 47 percent of stories, while abortion advocates were identified as “liberal” in 2.8 percent of stories.
Posted by
on February 1, 2011. Filed under