Nightline Skips Planned Parenthood Outrage, But Hyped 'Cat Poo Coffee'

July 22nd, 2015 3:38 PM

ABC's Nightline, a once serious news show, has ignored the scandal involving Planned Parenthood allegedly profiting from selling body parts of aborted babies. However, the same program has eagerly covered such irrelevant topics as "cat poo coffee" and the Bachlorette being "unapologetic about her sexuality." 

On July 17, Juju Chang opened the show with this breaking news: "You might be surprised where the world's most expensive coffee come from. If we told you it was a delicacy people pay hundred for, would you sip on some cat poo coffee? Inside the exotic new business."  

Chang wondered, "Would you try cat poop coffee? Head to our Nightline Facebook page and let us know."

On July 21, the same co-anchor hyped, "And the Bachelorette fights back. Kaitlyn Bristowe takes on her haters, unapologetic about her sexuality and now facing criticism. How she's taking matters into her own hands tonight." It should be no surprise that The Bachlorette airs on ABC. 

There has been nothing on Nightline about the most recent Planned Parenthood scandals. As Kristen Powers wrote for USA Today: 

[Planned Parenthood senior director of medical research Deborah] Nucatola had been caught on an undercover video talking to anti-abortion activists posing as representatives of a biological tissue procurement company. The abortion doctor said, “I’d say a lot of people want liver,” and “a lot of people want intact hearts these days.” Explaining how she could perform later-term abortions to aid the harvesting of such intact organs, she said, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

Instead, Nightline focuses on the superficial. This was the show created in the wake of American hostages being kidnapped in Iran. In recent years, it has mostly dropped the pretense of a news program. 

In 2014, over a 400 day stretch, it offered no coverage of the IRS scandal. The show hasn't covered ObamaCare since November 14, 2013. Instead, the program covered the gossipy phenomenon of "bootleg butt injections." 

(A rare break in this patter came in early July when the show actually offered a story on pro-life activists.) 

A transcript of the two teases: 

NL
7/21/15

JUJU CHANG: And the Bachelorette fights back. Kaitlyn Bristowe takes on her haters, unapologetic about her sexuality and now facing criticism. How she's taking matters into her own hands tonight. 
        

...

7/17/15
CHANG: You might be surprised where the world's most expensive coffee come from. If we told you it was a delicacy people pay hundred for, would you sip on some cat pooh coffee. Inside the exotic new business.