A snide Time magazine chided the organization behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos, insisting that “fury often matters more than facts.” In the October 5 issue, Alex Altman profiled David Daleiden of the Center for Mediacl Progress and lectured, “In the midst of a political storm, fury can often matter more than the facts. An activist with an agenda can shape policies that affect millions.”
Altman compared, “It was only five years ago that misleading sting videos taken by the conservative provocateur James O’Keefe destroyed ACORN, another nonprofit organization that became an obsession on the right.”
Altman also made sure to harp on whether or not Carly Fiorina got all the details right when she discussed Planned Parenthood during the second GOP debate:
Lurid details ricocheting around the Internet were inaccurate or distorted, like Fiorina’s grisly description of an image from the investigation. “Watch a fully formed fetus on the table,” she said, “its heart beating, its legs kicking.” Daleiden captured no such footage from the organization’s clinics, though one video includes an interview with a former fetal-tissue technician who claims to have seen a similar event, which was edited together with footage of unknown origin collected by a separate antiabortion group. Confronted about the accuracy of her statement, Fiorina didn’t backtrack.
He later argued:
In the midst of a political storm, fury can often matter more than the facts. An activist with an agenda can shape policies that affect millions; it was only five years ago that misleading sting videos taken by the conservative provocateur James O’Keefe destroyed ACORN, another nonprofit organization that became an obsession on the right.
Time’s Altman conceded, “But the impact of the videos is undeniable for patients in the states that have since defunded Planned Parenthood or launched investigations.”
Time should be complimented for at least profiling Daleiden and his work at the Center for Medical Progress. This is quite a contrast to the networks. At the two month mark, the networks had aired only 0.13 percent of the Planned Parenthood videos.
