The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism has been awarded to reporters for their work in uncovering medical malpractice; corruption in the government; faulty regulation of toys, car seats and cribs; sexual misconduct of government officials; abuse of the mentally ill; and many other issues.
Investigative reporting is a needed tool to uncover horrible practices of corruption and abuse that happen behind the closed doors of big corporations, governments and medical facilities, especially those that are taxpayer-funded.
Enter David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, whose nearly three-year-long investigation into the fetal baby body parts for-profit scheme of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion vendor, and their business partners exploded onto the national scene in the summer of 2015. The videos left little doubt that Planned Parenthood was operating a likely criminal operation as high-level officials in the organization discussed on-camera payments for baby body parts and how to go about crushing the baby in the womb so that certain organs were left intact so they would be sellable.
The House of Representatives created a special investigative panel to look into possible criminal wrongdoing and, after a year-long investigation, released more than a dozen criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood and their business partners, several of which are located in California.
But last night, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 charges against Daleiden and Merritt, most of which regard taping the conversations with Planned Parenthood officials that were supposedly private.
Bottom line: These charges are bogus and ridiculous.
If it weren’t for Daleiden and Merritt’s heroic work of exposing the massive fetal tissue trafficking for-profit scheme of Planned Parenthood and their business partners, Americans would have no idea about what their tax dollars are funding.
Daleiden and Merritt did what investigative journalists should have done years ago and investigated the abortion industry. Becerra has it backward. Instead of pursuing bogus charges against the citizen journalists who exposed this racket, Becerra should pursue the criminal referrals sent by the Select Panel in the House of Representatives against Planned Parenthood in California.
If this were any other issue besides exposing the corrupt abortion industry, Daleiden and Merritt would have won the Pulitzer Prize for their astounding investigative work, including the horrific video the Center for Medical Progress released Wednesday of a Planned Parenthood abortionist discussing what happens when a baby is born with signs of life after a botched abortion. Her answer: look at who’s in the room, because you know, that’s how you get away with it.
Sickening.
Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is president of Students for Life of America.
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