Does PP have a case? Did the Center for Medical Progress break the law? I’d love to see CMP have to pay through the nose for this. I’d also love to see some of the individuals face criminal charges if appropriate.
So letting the public know the truth about what a government-funded organization does should be punished with criminal charges?
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, to my untrained legal eye what they did looks an awful lot like libel: deliberately editing a tape in order to misrepresent a person’s position seems to violate the spirit of libel laws, and if it doesn’t violate the letter of the law, I’d like to see a change to such a law.
On the other hand, I think that our society is well-served by honest undercover journalism, and undercover journalism needs access to tools like hidden recording instruments. I don’t at all like the idea of laws, such as North Carolina’s new Ag Gag law, that stifle reporters’ ability to do their jobs.
So: yay to suing them for defamation, fraud, whatever. Boo to suing them for undercover recordings.
What a total and complete non sequitur. CMP did nothing remotely like letting the public know the truth.
Prior to the release of the videos, Planned Parenthood sold parts of aborted fetuses to research firms. The great majority of Americans did not know this. The Center for Medical Progress filmed executives and doctors from Planned Parenthood describing the processes they use to obtain fetal tissue, and saying that they earn income from doing so. Here’s one unedited video:
After that, most Americans knew the truth about what Planned Parenthood was doing. After the release of the videos, [Planned Parenthood said](http://www.wsj.com/articles/planned-parenthood-stops-taking-reimbursements-for-fetal-tissue-1444744800) that they would no longer charge money for fetal tissue.This is inaccurate. To be clear, you are accusing Planned Parenthood of violating federal law. Despite a tremendous amount of politically-motivated investigation into the matter, every investigating body that has drawn a conclusion has concluded that Planned Parenthood did not violate the law.
This is exactly why what they did was wrong. By dishonestly editing the videos, they misled people like you so that you now believe libelous things about Planned Parenthood and its employees.
But, it isn’t.
People who commit crimes should be punished with criminal charges, yes. I am not taking a position on whether or not this was a criminal act, though given that the group is associated with James O’Keefe it wouldn’t surprise me.
The law allows abortion provides to give fetal tissue to use for medical research and to charge for the cost of storing and shipping the tissue, but not any more than that. Did they charge more than that? The executive in the first video I linked to certainly suggests it. Likewise the executive in this video. You say no investigation has produced a conviction. It’s my understanding that that’s true, but they are ongoing.
In any case, all that the Center of Medical Progress was record the executives talking on camera. You accuse CPM of “deliberately editing a tape in order to misrepresent a person’s position” and suggest that it might be libel, though Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit is not for libel. To convict someone of libel in court, though, you actually have to provide evidence. “The internet told me so” probably wouldn’t cut the mustard with a judge.
The RICO claim seems a bit thin. I welcome education on this point, however – it could well be that I’m not hip to all the implications of private actions under RICO.
The two videos that I linked to are not dishonestly edited. Try watching themself, then you might know what you’re talking about.
I’m also not crazy about the idea of suing over violation of privacy/secret recording, which should be protected as much as possible if part of an honest effort at investigative reporting.
Proving smear/libel through bogus editing or other means is a different story.
Planned Parenthood has not been found to have violated the law on selling fetal tissue for research, and I highly doubt it ever will be. If any PP officials did charge more than reasonable storage/processing/shipping fees (determining what “reasonable” is would be highly subjective) and plowed those funds back into offering more health services for women, I’m not bothered at all by that, even if someone calls it “profiting”.
Are they the videos that are the subject of so much discussion? Because if you’re trying to bait and switch here–linking to the unedited videos which were released only after the initial controversy was started with the edited videos–that’s a bit less than best practices in debate.
Sounds like libel to me. I don’t know how the laws apply in a case like this but it looks like a deliberate and malicious attempt to defame Planned Parenthood. Under scrutiny maybe that’s not what it is, that’s why we have courts.
If I’m not mistaken, depending on the state, secretly recording conversations could be illegal, right?
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to imply here. Center for Medical Progress released a series of videos. At least for some of them, there was a longer unedited version and a shorted edited version focusing on the most consequential parts of the conversation. For the first video, both versions were released at the same time:
The date stamps on both videos is July 14, as you can see. For the second video:
Both released on July 21. So your claim that the unedited videos were released after the controversy started would appear to be untrue, at least in these two cases.
While it is legal to recoup reasonable costs associated with donating tissue, the Planned Parenthood executive clearly negotiates the price of acquiring the fetal tissue in the video. Planned Parenthood by law must set the price because the buyer cannot know exactly what costs are involved such as what they pay the doctors, nurses, rent, and other overhead. Therefore what they did is illegal.
One should also consider the consequences of monetizing or profiting from fetal tissue. What are you going say when poor women of color are encouraged or coerced into having abortions to meet some sales quota or perhaps tricked into abortions by telling them their babies will be severely deformed when there is no indication they will be?
No, but lying about what that government-funded private organization does in a way that significantly hampers its public image and causes it quite a lot of problems might be.
Here’s a short list of state-level investigations showing quite clearly that no, Planned Parenthood did not “sell” parts of aborted fetuses. You’re just wrong, dude.
Maybe you should tell that to the legislatures of Indiana, South Dakota, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri, and Washington?
One should also consider offering a source for outrageous claims.
What does any of this have to do with the video you linked to upthread, released on September 15?