Distortions

Jonah Goldberg writes at National Review about Planned Parenthood and the Left's attack on Carly Fiorina.

Many of the media outlets that even bother to cover the videos have referred to the transferring of “fetal tissue,” not “organs” — the correct term for livers, hearts and brains. (“Tissue” is less suggestive of a human being than, say, “heart.”)

We’re also often informed that the videos weren’t merely “edited” but “highly edited.” Left out of such caveats is that the news reports passing along these descriptions come via highly edited newspapers, radio, and TV programs.

Most Americans are morally appalled by late-term abortions. Planned Parenthood and its allies know this, which is why they refer to “uterine contents,” “clumps of cells,” “tissue” and even “goop,” when a more apt descriptor would be “fetus” or even “baby.”

In other words, the people horrified by these videos aren’t out of the mainstream — they are the mainstream. The people trying to dismiss the videos are the extremists, and the media give them cover.

For instance, Hillary Clinton, who once described the videos as “disturbing” — before Planned Parenthood yanked her leash — recited the usual talking points Sunday on Face the Nation about how the videos were “misleadingly edited.” It seems she’s more troubled by diabolical video editing than anything on the videos themselves.

Indeed, when host John Dickerson asked if she’d support any federal restrictions at “any stage of pregnancy” — conceivably right until the moment before birth — Clinton said she wouldn’t, because such abortions only take place for “medical necessity.”

That is a far greater distortion of the truth than anything Fiorina said. I won’t lose sleep waiting for the nitpickers to care.

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