Not that it will make a difference to these two.
Here's a
shock: the "sting" videos produced by the anti-choice extremist group posing as the Center for Medical Progress against Planned Parenthood were doctored, according to new analysis.
WASHINGTON — Planned Parenthood on Thursday gave congressional leaders and a committee that is investigating allegations of criminality at its clinics an analysis it commissioned concluding that “manipulation” of undercover videos by abortion opponents make those recordings unreliable for any official inquiry.
“A thorough review of these videos in consultation with qualified experts found that they do not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict,” said the analysis of a private research company. […]
The analysis was by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research and corporate intelligence company, and its co-founder Glenn Simpson, a former investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal. […]
The reviewers looked at both shorter, edited videos that are about eight minutes to 15 minutes long and what Mr. Daleiden said were full-length recordings, some more than two hours long, that he released simultaneously.
A transcription service was hired to transcribe the videos, without being told that Planned Parenthood was the client, to compare with transcripts publicized by the anti-abortion group. That comparison, the analysis said, showed “substantive omissions” from the group’s version. Mr. Simpson was assisted in the analysis by several others including a video forensics expert, Grant Fredericks, and a television producer, Scott Goldie.
The investigators looked at the first four of the videos released, both in short and long form as well as the transcripts provided by CMP, and concluded that "'the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries' unless C.M.P. provides investigators with its original material, and that material is independently authenticated as unaltered." Their analysis
suggests that even the long, supposedly unedited versions of the video also show signs of manipulation, as do the transcripts. In one case, the transcript provided by CMP omits as many as 4,000 words. The time stamps and frame counters in two of the videos, those in Houston and Denver, show that about 30 minutes of video is cut out of each.
Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's president, forwarded the report to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Democratic leaders Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. That should be enough to stop congressional investigations. It won't be. Republican congressional leadership does not care about the truth of this matter, they care about the politics going into 2016. They've planned a long-term war against the organization, and it's not likely anything will deter them.
