8 congressmen demand major networks to cover Planned Parenthood’s scandal

There has been a shocking level of media silence on the undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress which expose Planned Parenthood for trafficking the body parts of aborted babies. While cable networks such as CNN and Fox News have kept their viewers informed, the “big three” – CBS, NBC, and ABC – have all devoted almost no airtime to the scandal.

Now, a group of eight Congressmen have signed a letter and sent it to the presidents of all three networks, demanding that they cover the Planned Parenthood videos.

The letter was sent to Steve Burke of NBC Universal, David Rhodes of CBS News, and Ben Sherwood of Disney-ABC Television Group. It was signed by Reps. Louie Gohmert, Jeff Duncan, Randy Weber, Andy Barr, Walter Jones, Jeff Miller, Trent Franks, and Tim Huelskamp.

These eight Congressmen are among the House’s pro-life stalwarts. Rep. Trent Franks gave a particularly moving speech to members of a House Committee back in September.

Franks Statement at Planned Parenthood Hearing

Here is the text of the letter sent by Franks and the others:

In recent months, national attention has been drawn to a collection of undercover videos exposing a gruesome network of trafficking of infant body parts in America by abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. Astonishingly, your networks are effectively ignoring the entire affair, or worse, contributing to the defense of the indefensible.

According to date from the Media Research Center, in the two months after the release of the first Center for Medical Progress (CMP) video on July 14, “ABC, NBC, and CBS have only aired one minute and 13 seconds of these videos (with audio) during their news shows.” This amounts to only 0.13% of the more than 16 hours of video footage released by CMP — a practical blackout of coverage of the videos.

Furthermore, in the one minute and 13 seconds where those news segments did show the videos, they showed a white-washed version of the videos — failing to include some of the most pertinent and horrific elements of these videos such as lab technicians callously picking through a pile of babies legs, arms and hands in a Petri dish.

The data reveals a glaring truth: rather than inform the public about the potentially unlawful activities of Planned Parenthood exposed in the CMP videos, network leaders have deliberately misrepresented the content. There are edited videos, but the entire unedited videos are also available for those who care to see, and they are far worse than the shorter sound bites could show.

These videos raise a number of legal and ethical concerns, and by their very nature, deserve to sit in the media spotlight as a major story. Despite your news networks lack of coverage, the videos have received national attention; Congress is now investigating the allegations in the videos and the use of taxpayer funds by Planned Parenthood, and even presidential candidates from both sides of the aisle have discussed these videos. We see no excuse for your failure to cover these stories and no merit to any claims that they are not newsworthy. These same views were raised to you in an August letter from Media Research Center founder and president, Brent Bozell, and more than two dozen other community and civic leaders. To date, those inquiries remain ignored. Whether you think the Media Research Center deserves a response, Americans across the country certainly do.

In failing to cover this story, you provide unequivocal evidence that your coverage is politically driven and that journalistic integrity has been abandoned. It is imperative that you cover this dramatic assault on women and children. The public relies upon your national reporting of stories that affect our nation. We as lawmakers depend on the free press for the truth — at least about vital stories like this. Please do not continue to deprive people of that. We urge your networks to shine your journalistic light where you have thus far shown neglect and darkness.

Of course, there’s a really, really simple explanation for why the networks haven’t covered the videos: because Planned Parenthood told them not to. Saying these networks have shown a lack of journalistic principles and ethics would be a massive understatement.

None of the big three networks have covered any of the videos since July 31. They ignored the last seven videos – but they made sure to cover the killing of Cecil the Lion right through October. It took them over 24 hours to even mention the Planned Parenthood scandal after it broke, and as referenced in the letter, they stayed quiet on many of the details when they weren’t outright lying – calling the videos “deceptively edited,” or refusing to even say the word “baby.”

But then, none of this is particularly surprising. It took almost two months for the major news networks to cover Kermit Gosnell’s House of Horrors. What’s a little body part harvesting and trafficking, or a number of babies being killed after surviving abortion attempts? There’s no denying that these media giants are working hard to cover for Planned Parenthood. They ignored a letter from the Media Research Center; will they ignore this group of Congressmen, too?