Fox Effect and Planned Parenthood
On 1 February 2011, the anti-abortion rights activist group Live Action (organization), fronted by Lila Rose, released a video (which is believed to be highly edited) that set out to expose "Planned Parenthood's cover-up of child sex trafficking." However, the videos did not support the claims that were made and Planned Parenthood had reported the "potential sex trafficking" a week before the video from Live Action was released. Shortly after the release of this original video, and others like it, the claims were discredited.
FOX News became informed of the incident and, despite the false nature of the claims, proceeded to publicize the topic. The video made its first appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, Fox established a “near-daily” stream of the videos to give them more coverage and went on to have Rose appear on the show: Both immediately after its release, and the following months. Moreover, FOX News pushed the videos into the main stream in misleading ways: They aired the videos without mentioning that Planned Parenthood informed the FBI of the potential sex trafficking, Laura Ingraham was quoted saying "the Lila Rose folks ... should get a Pulitzer" commenting on the videos, and Glenn Beck dedicated his entire program to publicizing the videos without mention of the FBI contact along with having Rose appear to distort comments from Planned Parenthood Vice President. Later on, FOX also had Rose appear again to complain about the lack of action taken by Attorney General Eric Holder, who was supposedly not investigating the videos.
The promotion of Live Action's campaign against Planned Parenthood arose around the time during which House Republicans were proposing a funding cut for the women's health organization and Republican Mike Pence was proposing an amendment that would strip it of federal funds outright. Pence took advantage of the aired videos in order to promote his campaign and went on to thank O’Reilly for his media coverage of the Live Action videos. The amendment was later blocked, but the Republican Party continued its efforts. Rep Cliff Stearns began an investigation "requesting reams of financial information and details on how the women's health organization keeps federal funds separate from abortion services." This same investigation later caused the end of funding from Susan G. Komen for the Cure to Planned Parenthood. Komen later reversed the decision, but when the decision was first made Fox News supported the end of funding. In addition, FOX News' Bill O’Reilly commented on Planned Parenthood’s contribution to breast cancer research: " doesn't really do much." Sandy Rios, also of Fox News, desrcibed the decision to stop funding as “fabulous” and claimed that Planned Parenthood does “"nothing to prevent breast cancer. They don't even do mammograms. ... They're taking money from Susan G. Komen under false pretenses." In reality, “Komen funds have allowed Planned Parenthood to provide 170,000 breast exams and 6,400 mammogram referrals in the past five years."
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