For months now, we’ve been talking about how the fact that most people now have a video camera with them at all times, many more incidents are caught on tape than ever before, and people are being held accountable for their crimes.
But today, there are two, count ’em, TWO, videos in the news, both of which appear to have undergone extensive editing to convey a message very different from what was originally captured on tape.
Let’s begin with Planned Parenthood who, after being attacked on Monday by a James O’Keefe-esque hatchet job by some idiots from a tax-exempt(!) bullshit organization called The Center for Medical Progress.
This group appears to have done nothing (with the exception of these sickening attacks on PP), yet since their first deceptively-edited smear piece dropped a few days ago, both Rand Paul and Ted Cruz (both jockeying for the anti-choice vote) have demanded investigations, and Speaker John Boehner has promised that investigations are coming.
Enter the Washington Post editorial page as the voice of reason:
A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort. But it is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood, which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women’s reproductive rights any way they can.
The nine-minute video clip released by the Center for Medical Progress, an outfit apparently created in 2013, invites viewers to “Hold Planned Parenthood accountable for their illegal sale of baby parts.” In it, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, is seen discussing the collection of fetal tissue in a lunch meeting with two people posing as potential tissue buyers. A second video, released on Tuesday, shows another Planned Parenthood staff member discussing fetal tissue.
(snip)
The full video of the lunch meeting, over two hours long and released by the Center for Medical Progress after complaints by Planned Parenthood, shows something very different from what these critics claim. Clearly, the shorter version was edited to eliminate statements by Dr. Nucatola explaining that Planned Parenthood does not profit from tissue donation, which requires the clear consent of the patient.
(snip)
The Center for Medical Progress video campaign is a dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal. Lawmakers responding by promoting their own anti-choice agenda are rewarding deception and putting women’s health and their constitutionally protected rights at risk.
Please click here to read the entire Op-Ed, which puts this bullshit into perspective!
The second deceptively-edited video is even worse, because it 1) comes from a law enforcement agency entrusted with protecting the public, not killing them and 2) attempts to cover up a police brutality incident that led to the death of a woman who never should have been pulled over, let alone brutalized and detained, in the first place.
Until yesterday, we had only seen cell phone video that began after Sandra Bland had already been pulled over and exited the car, either on her own or pulled out by the offending officer. Yesterday, the Texas Department of Safety uploaded the dashcam video that captured the traffic stop to YouTube, or so they said.
Journalist Ben Orton watched the 52-minute video, and at about the mid-way mark began noticing glitches, cars appearing and disappearing, and some footage repeating over and over while the audio continued throughout.
Here’s the entire video…
Click through to see the times where the questionable footage comes in again and again and again. Stay tuned…
Today on the show, Deborah Newell Tornello returned from vacation for another installment of Oy, FloriDUH!
And in our Meet the Candidates series, today I spoke with Dr. Alina Valdes, running for Congress from FL25.
Tomorrow, I’ll be back with Driftglass and whatever else the news brings, radio or not!
