Fox News Sunday chose the most virulent critic of Planned Parenthood as its guest to discuss the mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. There was no balancing guest and no challenge to Fiorina's debunked attacks on Planned Parenthood.
Just before Fiorina’s interview, Fox News correspondent Will Carr reported that “there are multiple reports” that in the suspect’s interviews with investigators, he has said, “‘no more baby parts’ which appears to refer to recent videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal body parts.”
Somehow, Carr “forgot” to mention that those videos, although championed by Fox News, have been widely discredited.
When Fiorina came on, her first statement acknowledged the tragedy:
FIORINA: Well, this is a tragedy. It’s obviously a tragedy. Nothing justifies this. And presumably this man who appears deranged, if nothing else, will be tried for murder, as he should be. But it’s a tragedy, especially on a holiday weekend.
But having dispatched her “compassionate” and “pro-life” bona fides, Fiorina got down to attacking Planned Parenthood with the same kind of inflammatory rhetoric pro-choice activists believe fuels this kind of violence.
Considering Fox News blames criticism of police on cop killings, you’d think a “fair and balanced” Sunday news show would have had at least one pro-choice guest discussing the possible tie between the videos and an uptick in harassment, threats of violence, and attacks on clinics.
Instead, Fiorina used the tragedy to smear the left and to double down on her attacks. And Wallace helped legitimize her by failing to point out that her famous debate-attack on Planned Parenthood for allegedly selling body parts was proved bogus.
WALLACE: You have been one of the toughest critics, as we’ve said, of Planned Parenthood’s alleged harvesting of body parts, selling for fetal research. Some of the pro-choice advocates are saying language like yours, not single you out, but language like yours, has incited violence. I’d like to get your reaction to that. But also, what would you say to protesters, people outside these clinics, about the limits of their opposition?
FIORINA: Well, first, it is not alleged. Planned Parenthood acknowledged several weeks ago they would no longer take compensation for body parts, which sounds like an admission that they were doing so.
Secondly, this is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing the messenger, because they don’t agree with the message. The vast majority of Americans agree, what Planned Parenthood is doing is wrong. That’s why the vast majority of Americans are prepared not only to defund Planned Parenthood, but also to stop abortion for any reason at all after five months.
So, what I would say to anyone who tries to link this terrible tragedy to anyone who opposes abortion or opposes the sale of body parts is, this is typical left-wing tactics.
Besides the odiousness of using a mass shooting to smear the left (and deflect attention from the fact that the shooter was almost certainly a right-wing zealot), Fiorina also used the moment to further smear Planned Parenthood with another falsehood, that the fact that it stopped accepting reimbursement for costs associated with fetal tissue donations was an admission of guilt about “selling body parts.”
Wallace didn’t challenge Fiorina about that, either. Instead, he fed her an opportunity to distance herself from anti-abortion threateners:
WALLACE: And what would you say to the protesters, the people that are outside the clinics and oppose it?
FIORINA: Well, any protesters should always be peaceful, whether it’s Black Lives Matter or pro-life protesters, protesters should always be peaceful and respectful.
Watch it below, from the November 29 Fox News Sunday. By the way, this show was another in our growing tally of Fox News Sunday shows without Democratic interviews.
So as not to offend their eat shit and howl at the Moon crazy fundie anti abortion fans of Faux.
Her very bullshit was a propellent for these deranged killings. The “body parts” line that she energetically endorsed in the setup video.
Not one smidgeon of remorse. I bet someone on the right will soon say PP had it coming if they haven’t already.