As I noted the other day, the Divine Mrs. M.Z. Hemingway has been involved in a very revealing standoff with The New York Times over a very basic issue of fact linked to the undercover Planned Parenthood videos being released by Catholic activist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress team.
Hang on. In a minute we'll get to to a recent Eric Metaxas Show interview with M.Z. about the mainstream press, abortion, #AnotherBoy, classic GetReligion, Dr. Kermit Gosnell and several other topics of interest to readers of this weblog.
But first, unless something has happened that I have missed, Hemingway is still trying to get a correction from the world's most powerful newspaper, one noted for the excellence -- under normal circumstances -- of its corrections desk.
So, one more time, here is the Times online form that she has filled out to make her complaint. The key to her claim is the basic fact that almost all websites have built-in clocks, so you know when people posted something or made a basic change in a post. Thus:
Article Headline: Planned Parenthood Tells Congress More Videos of Clinics Might Surface
Date Published: Web: July 20, Print: July 21
Web or Print: Both
Phrase in Question: "Mr. Daleiden released what he called the full recording last week after Planned Parenthood complained of selective, misleading editing."
Your Concern (please limit to 300 words): –- This is completely in error. The full recording was released 21 seconds after the edited version, according to YouTube records, many hours before Planned Parenthood tried the public relations spin accepted by some reporters. ...
Please let me know when the correction has been issued.
Your Name: Mollie Hemingway ...
Your Location: Alexandria, VA
This is all linked to a subject we have been dealing with quite a bit lately here at GetReligion (click here and then here, for starters), which is the public's collapsing level of trust in the mainstream press. If the computer clock at YouTube shows the unedited Center for Medical Progress video going online seconds after the edited version (think 60 Minutes-style gotcha editing), then why does the Times team insist that the unedited version was only released after Planned Parenthood criticism of the editing?
In terms of journalism, this makes no sense to me. Thus, I seconded the M.Z. request for a correction. Let's do that again, shall we?
Now, Hemingway has continued -- writing for The Federalist -- to climb all over the ethics, religion and journalism angles of the Planned Parenthood story. To catch up, click here, here, here, here and here. Also, there is the updated "Ideas For Reporters Struggling To Cover Planned Parenthood" and we can only hope for an updated "The Bad, Worse, & Ugly: Media Coverage of Planned Parenthood’s Organ Harvesting Scandal."
So what is there to say about her recent visit to the Eric Metaxas Show? We'll it's very informative and not funny at all, which is strange when we are dealing with some as certified witty as Eric (a long-time friend of mine). But this is a very dark and serious subject, so that's that.
Now, I do think GetReligion listeners will want to listen in order to hear some really interesting backstory on M.Z., GetReligion and Gosnell and how that is linked to what she is seeing now, in terms of mainstream media coverage (or lack thereof) of Planned Parenthood.
So click here and tune that in. Please.