As the mouthpiece for the rabidly anti-choice GOP, Christian right, the "fair & balanced" Fox News network provides them with validation for their campaign to defund Planned Parenthood. Prior to the 2010 House vote to defund the women's healthcare organization (the first big vote of the session), Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham spent over a week hosting and agreeing with their anti-choice guests. James O'Keefe protégé, Lila Rose, always receives a warm welcome on Fox where she gets to show her anti-Planned Parenthood sting videos, none of which have resulted in any prosecution of the agency. In their Gosnell coverage, Fox tried to equate his clinic with Planned Parenthood. Now, as result of a request from GOP lawmakers (who else) the Government Accountability Office is investigating Planned Parenthood in yet another attempt to "prove" that it should be defunded. Fox, in reporting this, seems, at first glance to have a factual headline. But a closer look at the quotes around "Parenthood" show a blatant homage to those who are waging a real war on women's reproductive freedom.
The anti-choice movement is always braying about how Planned Parenthood isn't about "parenthood" because it provides birth control and abortions which prevent women from conceiving and terminate unwanted pregnancies. Of course, the fact that this health care organization provides a full range of gynecological health care services is lost on those in the "forced birth" movement. And obviously, the whole concept of the benefits of "planned" parenthood is also lost on those who see women as happy brood mares. Hence the quotes around the word "parenthood" in the screaming, big headline which doesn't even cite the actual organization but so as not to confuse readers, shows a protest sign with the name Planned Parenthood. (I sign that I have proudly held aloft at pro-Planned Parenthood demonstrations!!!!)
But the blatant bias doesn't stop there. The article reports that the GAO is opening an investigation into "how the country's largest abortion provider spent millions of taxpayer dollars." (Notice the use of the more inflammatory "taxpayer dollars" rather than public funding). It goes on to say that "lawmakers want to know what procedures and services they [Planned Parenthood] provided and the number of people served and how much it costs." (Notice that nowhere does it say that the lawmakers are only Republicans including the diaper clad, prostitute "John," GOP LA Sen. David Vitter.) A recent settlement, involving billing fraud, between Texas and the Texas affiliate of Planned Parenthood, was cited. The article then quotes a lawyer from the Christian "Alliance Defending Freedom" (run by the Sekulow's who are Fox faves) who whines about how the evil, librul media isn't covering the case and how he has "proof" of other malfeasance by Planned Parenthood.
Meanwhile, the "fair & balanced" article ignores comments from pro-choice lawmakers who called the initial investigation request a "waste of taxpayer money" because these audits have been done before with nothing to show for it; but are, rather, "an ideological crusade against women's health." Cecile Richards, who has never, as far as I know, been interviewed on Fox, says it's about "launching baseless political attacks aimed at restricting women's access to preventive health care." That her comment is spot-on is reflected by GOP Diane Black who says that "My hope is that through greater transparency and accountability we can successfully mobilize the support needed to defund abortion providers -- once and for all." That wasn't mentioned in the Fox article which was, once again, a shout-out to those whose bidding Fox is always willing to do!