Video Killed the (Insert Facts Here)

 Elisabeth Warner

ew758821@ohio.edu

    In July 2015, an anti-abortion extremist group, Center for Medical Progress (CMP), released a series of videos they claimed showed Planned Parenthood trafficking in fetal tissue obtained from abortions performed at their clinics. The videos, which investigations later showed to be deceptively edited, contained footage recorded secretly of CMP founder David Dalieiden and other group members posing as representative from a fictional bio research company meeting with Planned Parenthood's medical research director, Dr. Deborah Nucatola. 

    The footage appears to show Nucatola discussing the illegal sale of fetal tissue for the profit of Planned Parenthood.

    More extensive footage released by CMP makes clear that Nucatola, rather than discussing selling the tissue, is describing reimbursement for expenses incurred donating the tissue to medical research, a service offered to patients at a few Planned Parenthood clinics. 

    These videos, though later discredited, were presented to the public by traditional news organizations as undisputed truth, the consequences of which extend to the present moment.

Image: House Committee on Oversight and Reform

The Power of the Pixel

    To be clear, there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue or profited from it in any way. Investigations initiated by state Republican leaders hoping to capitalize on the videos to support their anti-abortion policies in 12 states all concluded there was nothing to support the allegations made by CMP. There has never been proof of any kind that corroborated their claims. 

    There has been evidence that the videos first shared by outlets all over the country were edited in a way that did "not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict".

    In the longer footage CMP themselves released, shifting timestamps show the original video to be the product of recordings from multiple dates, manipulated to reflect their anti-abortion agenda. An analysis done by an independent transcription service who did not have contact with Planned Parenthood reported that the videos had "substantive omissions". So while it's fair to argue that experts aren't omniscient, it's evident that the videos are, at minimum, misleading.

    When these videos were initially reported on, however, the overwhelming narrative was only that they were irrevocably devastating to not only Planned Parenthood but to the future of reproductive rights. Mainstream, arguably left-leaning news organizations such as The New York Times and The Washington Post seemed to spend little time vetting the videos, instead focusing on the partisan spectacle that was already unfolding. 

    Despite the questionable origins of CMP, a 2-year-old organization run by Daleiden, a 26-year-old with a history of harassment against healthcare providers, there was no real questioning of the veracity of the videos. These news organizations preferenced these videos over a heavily regulated century-old medical institution whose services were utilized by millions of Americans simply because it didn't occur to them that what their eyes were telling them might not be true.

Image: Boldmatic

Consequences

    Because news organizations failed to perform the most basic of journalistic functions– vetting supposed evidence with a skeptical and thorough investigation– there were real world consequences that extended far beyond ideological back-and-forths between opposing sides. 

    To the surprise of no one, these videos were swiftly and predictably weaponized by conservative politicians and pundits in their long battle to restrict or eliminate reproductive health care.

    The Republican-led Senate introduced a bill to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control and preventive health services to millions of people in the United States (because of the 1976 Hyde Amendment, no federal dollars can go toward abortion; also, abortion only accounts for approximately 3% of Planned Parenthood's health care services)(this bill did not pass).

    The state legislature in Ohio voted to defund Planned Parenthood, citing the videos. Then-Governor John Kasich signed the bill into law in 2016 blocking funding for programs that included Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, the largest infant mortality reduction program in the state. 

    Five months after CMP released the videos and the media circulated them without questioning their validity, a man named Robert Dear brought four rifles into the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood and murdered two women and a police officer. As he was being arrested, he yelled about the "baby parts", and later told the police "he was upset that Planned Parenthood was performing abortions and selling baby parts".

    There was one reported death threat against abortion providers in 2014; in 2015, the year the videos were released, there were 94.

Drip, Drip

    To combat the damage done by the videos, Planned Parenthood has done a lot right. 

    They have been tirelessly vocal and transparent about the work they do and they public health risks that would result in their inability to do their work, pushing back in the media, on their own platforms, and in congressional hearings. The reports and investigations vindicating their denial of CMP's false allegations have been covered, if not as heavily as the videos initially were, and they continue to be supported by the public, with 62% saying they viewed Planned Parenthood favorably and oppose cutting their federal funding. 

    In 2016, Planned Parenthood sued CMP for defamation, and a federal jury awarded them $2.2 million in damages. 

    Meanwhile, Daleiden, CMP's founder and orchestrator of the videos, has been embattled in legal charges, and is currently facing multiple felonies for his role in creating the videos. 

    But to repair the destruction caused by a credulous media willing to run unexamined accusations is a bit like trying to salvage honey from a jar that's been smashed on the ground– you can get some back, but most of it is likely to be full of glass shards, making it both unusable and dangerous. And you get pretty sticky trying to sort it all out.

    By accepting content that was illegally obtained from an organization with a clear political agenda and no meaningful history of credibility because they were hypnotized by images from a video, news organizations betrayed their foundational principles of truth and accuracy above all else. The media traded its own integrity to promote content reasonably understood as explosive, further eroding political stability and putting the public at material risk.

    In a few weeks, the Supreme Court is likely to strike down established law that makes abortion a constitutional right. Texas is paying a bounty to those who are suspected of aiding a person trying to get an abortion. The gun violence seen in Colorado pales next to what we've seen this week, this month, and this year. 

    It would be an absurd overreach to say that the decision made by multiple news organizations to share CMP's video is responsible for all that. 

    But each drip that happens when respected news organizations neglect to treat any potential source, story, or evidence with the suspicion and caution it deserves adds up, and we never know which drip will make our collective bucket overflow. With the CMP videos, the news media went image-blind, seduced by what they thought was right in front of them, adding not a few drops to that bucket. 

    To my knowledge, no major news outlets have acknowledged that their initial reporting was sloppy. More drips.