During the second Republican debate, candidate Carly Fiorina dared to take on Planned Parenthood for the their part in illegally profiting from the sale of fetal parts. Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood has been attacking her since, as have many in the media.
The debate aired about a month ago, on September 16. While Fiorina has been polling towards the top of the 15 Republican candidates, she has been slipping in some recent polls to having single digit support.
Is there evidence that her slip is due to her taking on Planned Parenthood? Not exactly, but that’s not how Tommy Christopher for Mediaite sees it. He’s all too happy to equate the two in his piece, “Bye, Carly! Fiorina Loses Debate Bump After Planned Parenthood Fiasco.”
Christopher does not actually give any hard evidence that the two are related, he just spends his piece trashing and attempting to discredit Fiorina’s statements as so many have done before him.
Christopher not only spends much of his piece trashing Fiorina, but Republicans and Republican voters as well. Sadly, that’s nothing new. But what is noteworthy about it is that his points demonstrate astounding ignorance and one-sidedness. For instance, Christopher says that, during the debate:
Fiorina also mixed in lots of figurative and literal red meat, most notably by attacking Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood with a description of a video that she made up in her head.
It’s one thing to argue about if what Fiorina said about the video actually happened (which it did), but it’s another to say she “made [it] up in her head.” Here’s a particularly rich way that Christopher regards the whole scenario:
In fairly short order, though, a unanimous consensus emerged that Fiorina’s debate performance was nothing more than a bag of flaming factual dog poop on the porch. Pretty much no one with any common sense would defend her record as a CEO, but most notably, it was her lie about a Planned Parenthood video that splattered all over her the harder she tried to stomp the flames out.
Perhaps Christopher is unaware, but “unanimous consensus” means that everyone agrees – certainly not the case here. Fiorina may be slipping, but she is still within the top five in many polls and she still has supporters. Christopher sees a lie; others don’t. In fact, pro-lifers are thrilled that this issue is getting the attention it deserves.
Christopher also finds a way to throw in his support for Planned Parenthood, inserting his opinion as fact:
Then, just as Carly Fiorina was being proved an undeniable liar when it came to the Planned Parenthood video, the House GOP came along and fumbled their own attack on the still-insanely-popular organization. Their disastrous hearing can best be summed up by this moment between committee chairman Jason Chaffetz and successful CEO Cecile Richards:
“My lawyer is informing me is source of this is from Americans for Life, which is an anti-abortion group. So I would check your source.”
Um, what? I’m not sure if you can consider Planned Parenthood – which in some polls enjoys the support of a small majority and in other polls a negative view – a “still-insanely-popular organization.”
As someone who personally attended the hearing, all five hours of it, I would agree that it was a “disastrous hearing.” I say so on the basis that Cecile Richards was unable to and/or refused to answer basic questions about the organization she runs.
The part Christopher is referring to had to do with a chart from a report, written about before by Live Action News and others trying to get the truth out. It shows how, under Richards’ leadership, legitimate services such as cancer screenings have gone down, while abortions have gone up.
If it sums up anything, it’s that Richards answered by deflecting and discrediting sources, because she herself didn’t know what else to say. This question about services was mentioned several more times throughout the hearing and became one of the take-aways.
That the media would criticize and attempt to discredit Fiorina for standing up to Planned Parenthood is hardly unique. But it really is nauseating to see such falsehoods and blatant bias.
