Appearance may not always equal reality, particularly when it comes to 21st century politics and the way the new media and political media that can mean big bucks, hits, and political gain operate. The New York Times:
Planned Parenthood on Thursday gave congressional leaders and a committee that is investigating allegations of criminality at its clinics an analysis it commissioned concluding that “manipulation” of undercover videos by abortion opponents make those recordings unreliable for any official inquiry.
“A thorough review of these videos in consultation with qualified experts found that they do not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict,” said the analysis of a private research company.
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, underscored that message in a cover letter to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker John A. Boehner, both Republicans, and to Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leaders.
Shortly after release of the analysis, the anti-abortion group responsible for the videos dismissed the attempted debunking as “a complete failure,” and attributed gaps identified in the videos to “bathroom breaks and waiting periods.”
With Mr. Boehner’s urging, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July opened an investigation of Planned Parenthood after the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group, began posting online secretly recorded videos that the center claims show Planned Parenthood affiliates illegally profit from selling tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers and, in some late-term abortions, prevent a possible live birth.
Planned Parenthood denies the charges, and says that the videos were deceptively and misleadingly edited.
The analysis was by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research and corporate intelligence company, and its co-founder Glenn Simpson, a former investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Of course, this doesn’t mean all of the comments by Planned Parenthood officials were false, but alterting interviews in this kind of serious case when it’s used is a political tool is a no no and makes the accuracy of what was put out there originally questionable.
But in 21sts century politics, facts simply do NOT matter.
It’s all about either repeating a political mantra over and over again (like Lucy in Peanuts insisting snow comes up from the ground) or ignoring any new facts that question or negate what has been presented as facts.
It’s about getting something to use as bludgeon to bring about a kind of change. Facts simply don’t matter, saying it, showing it and then acting in-your-face-I-won’t-back-down-no-matter-what-you-show-me-or-say does.
Which partially explains Donald Trump’s appeal (to certain people).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.