Megyn Kelly didn’t let a little thing like integrity stand in the way of her vicious grandstanding against Planned Parenthood after a deceptively edited video falsely seemed to portray the organization selling fetus’ body parts.
As NewsHounds’ Priscilla pointed out, the sting video is produced by a sketchy, agenda driven group, including slimeball James O’Keefe, who produced the completely-debunked ACORN videos – which “independent” Kelly didn’t mention. Priscilla noted:
As documented on Media Matters, the video for public consumption is highly edited and the full version demonstrates that there was nothing illegal discussed. The version being pimped by Fox doesn’t include comments, from the Planned Parenthood employee, about how the tissue samples are used for medical research (the polio vaccine was made with fetal tissue) and obtained with the patient’s consent.
But “independent” and "straight news anchor" Kelly was a vision of scripted outrage as she declared that Planned Parenthood was caught “admitting – even celebrating – its harvest of the organs of aborted fetuses for money.”
Before Kelly did a softball interview with Republican Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz to help promote his own attack on Planned Parenthood, Fox's “objective” Trace Gallagher did a report that could have been scripted by Cruz. It never mentioned, for example, that Planned Parenthood stated,
"Late in the day, the Live Action-offshoot group released a longer video. It shows that the Planned Parenthood staffer was talking in the context of stem cell research, and was talking about standard reimbursement rates for costs associated with tissue donation — all of which was edited to change the meaning."
The 2.5-hour video also shows that the Planned Parenthood staffer’s discussion of brain stem tissue that can help researchers study brain tumors and spinal chord injuries was distorted by editing to make it appear that she was talking about trafficking body parts, which she clearly wasn’t."
But why should “straight news anchor” Kelly worry her prime-time-paid head with the facts when she could present it as a he said/she said – with an emphasis on the “he” - and pretend she was just presenting both sides?
Yet Kelly was full of unbalanced, biased statements like this:
KELLY: A number of media outlets today defended Planned Parenthood, attacking this video as a sting operation intended to make the group look bad. While on the other side conservatives were outraged by what they saw. With writer Michelle Malkin posting an op-ed that reads, in part, “What kind of country do we live in where law-abiding businesses are fined, threatened and demonized for refusing to bake gay wedding cakes but barbaric baby butchers are hailed by feminists, Hollywood and a president who asked God to 'bless' them. God help us."
I’ll bet using the video to smear President Obama was good for a few more dollars in Kelly’s contract.
Before bringing on Cruz, Kelly made a nod at balance by hosting a debate between Dana Loesch (as hateful as she ever was) and Democrat Robert Zimmerman. Kelly put her thumb on the scale at the start by saying, with hammy indignation, “Let’s talk about the barbarism of it… the barbarism of her callous tone, Dana, as she (Planned Parenthood's Dr. Deborah Nucatola) discusses the crushing of fetus organs!”
In fact, Nucatola was not being barbaric, but very clinical, in her discussion. I’ll bet any doctor discussing amputation or even gall bladder removal would discuss body parts in the same way.
Zimmerman did a terrific job debunking the video. “What infuriates me, Megyn, is the fraud behind this video. Let’s call it what it is. This is right-wing pornography,” he said.
And, surprise! Suddenly Kelly thought she might have a duty to challenge something. She said, melodramatically and condescendingly, “They didn’t make Dr. Nucatola talk about crushing fetal organs!”
But Zimmerman never called out how Kelly and Fox were acting as dishonest brokers nor the sudden sensitivity of a hate monger like Loesch who had the audacity to talk about the lack of “humanity” and “sensitivity” by Planned Parenthood.
Kelly closed by saying she respected Zimmerman’s “sincere views” - then closed by saying, “Normally, we don’t go to the darkest place on this show but that video needed to be discussed.”
By the way, just last week, a guest told Kelly she was sorry her husband had shot and killed an alleged attacker at a motel, “because I’d like to kill him again. I lie in bed and fantasize about all the different ways that I could do it.” And, as I wrote at the time, that did not put a dent in Kelly’s admiration for her. It just so happens that Loesch was on hand to discuss that incident, too. Do you think it bothered Ms. Sensitivity For Life even an itsy bitsy?
Watch the right-wing pornography above, from the July 15 The Kelly File.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
We watch Fox so you don't have to!
