Four Years Later, Court Says Planned Parenthood Tapes Were NOT Manipulated
By Andrew
In 2015, a group of activist journalists called the Center for Medical Progress embarked on an epic undercover mission to see what was really going on inside the offices of the world’s largest abortion provider. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. In recorded interviews with some of Planned Parenthood’s top officials, the CMP journalists soon proved that the organization was essentially selling aborted fetal tissue for profit, an illegal activity that should have heralded the beginning of the end of Planned Parenthood.
Once the tapes were released, the reaction was immediate: Americans were horrified to see the truth about this evil organization. Republicans jumped at the opportunity to finally strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding, and swore during the 2016 campaign to do everything they could as president to prosecute the abortionists to the fullest extent of the law.
And that’s when Planned Parenthood, the Democratic Party, and their friends in the media decided it was time to push the panic button.
So we got a slew of stories insisting, without evidence, that the Center for Medical Progress had not only “tricked” Planned Parenthood officials and gained access to their offices under false pretenses, but that they had “selectively edited” the videos to make them tell a story that wasn’t true. Knowing that the first part might be relevant in court but utterly irrelevant in terms of public opinion, they leaned heavily on the second accusation. Sensing their way out of this mess, Planned Parenthood called on an independent firm to verify that the tapes had, indeed, been manipulated. The firm did exactly that, the media reported it all dutifully, and before long, most Americans were convinced that it was all just one giant right-wing hoax.
This week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was no such thing.
“The record reflects that [the Texas Office of the Inspector General] had submitted a report from a forensic firm concluding that the video was authentic and not deceptively edited,” said the ruling. “And the plaintiffs [Planned Parenthood] did not identify any particular omission or addition in the video footage.
“There is no question that the OIG here made factual findings after viewing the videos and related evidence,” the judges wrote. “On the basis of the administrative record … the OIG determined that video discussions ‘centered on clinic processes and tissue packaging rather than the abortion procedure itself; the video featured repeated discussion about the position of the fetus in the uterus, the risk to the patient, and the patient’s pain tolerance.’”
In sum, the court ended up agreeing with the OIG and confirming that the tapes were indeed not selectively edited. This ruling will clear a path for Texas to take action against Planned Parenthood – action which may extend to stripping them of their Medicaid funding.
Perhaps more importantly, given what the media has been doing to President Trump lately, this ruling serves as an essential reminder that the “fake news” label is not just propaganda or red meat for the base. There is more truth to that label than anyone on the left wants you to know. That’s something to keep in mind as stories roll out about Michael Cohen, Trump Tower, FBI investigations, and all the rest of the Mueller nonsense. They are weaving an agenda, and they are more than happy to lie their asses off to spread their narrative.
Oh, by the way: The independent firm that Planned Parenthood hired to prove the tapes were edited?
A little outfit by the name of Fusion GPS.