The New York Times took more than two weeks to correct a glaring error in a report detailing efforts by Planned Parenthood to stanch the flow of undercover videos from a pro-life activist group.
The Times originally reported on July 21 that the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind a series of secretly recorded tapes showing Planned Parenthood affiliates discussing compensation for organs salvaged from the remains of aborted children, released it full, unedited footage only after the nation’s largest provider of abortions had “complained of selective, misleading editing.”
This is not true.
The pro-life group has from the very beginning made all of its raw footage available online. The Center for Medical Progress has also provided complete video transcripts for each video.
The Times report, titled “Planned Parenthood Tells Congress More Videos of Clinics Might Surface,” now bears an Aug. 6 correction reading, “An article on July 21 about a video made by abortion opponents, which they said proved that Planned Parenthood sells tissue from aborted fetuses for profit, referred incorrectly to the timing of the release of what was described as the full-length, unedited version of the video showing a Planned Parenthood employee talking about how much clinics charge for specimens.”
“The full video was posted at the same time as the edited version. It is not the case that the full video was not released until ‘after Planned Parenthood complained of selective, misleading editing,'” the correction added.
This isn’t the only report that the Times fouled up in July.
An error-riddled July 23 article, originally titled “Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton’s Use of Email,” falsely reported that two inspectors general had recommended the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into Clinton’s use of a private, unauthorized email server when she was secretary of state.
As it turns out, however, the recommendation was not made on criminal grounds.
The newspaper eventually updated the story with two major rewrites before admitting finally that the whole thing was “a mess.”
It doesn’t end there, though.
A July 22 Times editorial, titled “The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood,” has not yet been updated to correct a similarly false passage that reads, “The full video … released by the Center for Medical Progress after complaints by Planned Parenthood.”
A spokeswoman for the Times did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Planned Parenthood and its defenders in both the press and Washington, D.C., have complained repeatedly that the tapes have been “selectively edited,” ignoring that the Center for Medical Progress has made all of its unedited footage available.
The secretly taped videos have raised a great deal of concern among lawmakers and 2016 presidential candidates, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood, who has called the content of the videos “disturbing.”
The first video released by the Center for Medical Progress shows a Planned Parenthood executive discussing “doing a little better than” breaking even for donating fetal organs.
Another video shows a separate Planned Parenthood executive negotiating compensation for in-demand organs, including hearts, kidneys and livers, saying at one point, “It has been years since I talked about compensation [for fetal organs] … so let me just figure out what others are getting.”
“If this is in the ballpark, it’s fine. If it’s still low, then we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini,” she said.
Other videos show Planned Parenthood affiliates seemingly discussing performing partial-birth abortions so as to extract specific organs undamaged.
The sale of aborted fetal tissue for profit is illegal under federal law. It is also illegal to perform partial-birth abortions.
The undercover videos — there are five so far — are the result of a three-year-long sting operation. The Center for Medical Progress said recently that it has much more footage that it plans to release in the near future.
(h/t Neal Dewing)
