Planned Parenthood buildings began to burn when deceptively edited abortion videos began to circulate, including a facility in Pullman, Washington. Hours after a lie-filled Republican hearing, another Planned Parenthood burned in Thousand Oaks, California, in what authorities have determined was an arson attack.
It turns out, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), that the Thousand Oaks arson was the fourth Planned Parenthood building targeted by right wing terrorists in a 74-day period, reporting on October 2:
Arson is behind a fire this week at a Planned Parenthood clinic in California – the fourth terroristic attack of its kind since the release of controversial videos in July by a group linked to anti-abortion extremists.
The firebombing of the clinic in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Wednesday came 28 days after an almost identical arson at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman, Wash., home of Washington State University.
In both cases, authorities say, rocks were used to smash out windows before a petroleum-based accelerant was thrown inside before ignition. Arson attacks also occurred on July 19 at a clinic in Aurora, Ill., and on Aug. 1 involving a vehicle parked at a clinic under construction in New Orleans.
[…]
The latest attack came the same week that Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, told a congressional hearing that the organization did not break the law.
“Planned Parenthood has been in the news recently because of deceptively edited videos released by a group that is dedicated to making abortion illegal in this country,” Richards told a House panel.
What is equally alarming is what Media Matters for America has to say about the willingness of the media to talk about these episodes of terrorism:
A Media Matters review found that cable news shows and leading newspapers around the country remained largely silent on arson attacks that targeted Planned Parenthood clinics following the release of a series of deceptively-edited, anti-choice videos smearing the health care provider. Prime-time cable news shows and the nation’s three highest-circulation newspapers dedicated minimal coverage to the arson attacks. The LA Times and Spokane’s Spokesman Review provided the most coverage of the attacks.
According to Media Matters:
Cable News All But Ignored Clinic Attacks, Even After Some Were Determined To Be Arson: Cable News All But Ignored The Attacks, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Aired The Only Segment On Planned Parenthood Arsons: On the September 8 edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow reported on the September 4 arson in Pullman, Washington, connecting it to the national debate over federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Maddow described the attack as “one of those news stories that doesn’t look like a national story at first glance, but it is,” alluding to the “anti-Planned Parenthood rhetoric out there right now ” amid the fight to defund the women’s health organization
National Print Media Remained Largely Silent On Attacks: The Washington Post covered the arson attacks only once, briefly mentioning CNN’s report on an attack on a clinic in Thousand Oaks, California during an October 2 daily news roundup; The New York Times reported on the arsons only once, briefly mentioning the New Orleans, Louisiana, attack in a September 1 article about the impact of the national push to defund Planned Parenthood in Louisiana.
Local Newspaper Editorials Connected Arsons To Debunked Claims Against Planned Parenthood By Anti-Choice Group: Los Angeles Times Editorial Explained That CA Clinic Arson Followed Claims Made In Manipulated Anti-Choice Videos; Spokesman Review Editorial Noted That Arson Attack “Raises The Fear That It Was Motivated” By CMP’s Deceptively-Edited Videos; New Orleans’ Times-Picayune Did Not Cover Local Clinic Fire.
Local Media Offered Scattered Coverage Of Attacks: Spokesman Review And LA Times Provided The Most Detailed Coverage: Spokane, Washington’s Spokesman Review Included The Most Coverage, Reporting On The Pullman, Washington Attacks In 5 Articles, Including One Editorial; The LA Times Covered Thousand Oaks, CA Arson Attacks In Three Detailed Articles, Including One Editorial; The Chicago Tribune Reported On The FBI Investigation Into The Aurora, Illinois Clinic Fire.
Fox News was quick to tell readers the videos raised questions, but they were all the wrong questions. The real questions went unasked, and largely unreported even by the rest of the allegedly left-leaning mainstream media “elite.” Right wing terrorism is not going to be reported on by the right wing media, and let’s face it, the mainstream media, being corporate-owned, is right-leaning.
We live in a country where right wing lies and distortions get reported on and actual facts get ignored. There is nothing fair and balanced about what’s coming through our TVs, and we are increasingly unsafe as a result. For the Nazis it was synagogues that were the target. For our own breed of fascists, it is Planned Parenthood clinics. We cannot and must not remain silent about what is happening in this country.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said in a statement that “toxic rhetoric directed at Planned Parenthood has dangerous consequences. It sends a signal that using violence to close clinics and intimidate healthcare professionals and women is ‘OK.’ It is not.”
Unfortunately, there is a long history of violence against women’s health care clinics. There have been more than 200 arsons and bombings over the past 40 years. These acts are serious crimes at the state and federal level, and the criminals who perpetrate them must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But it is “OK” according to the mainstream media, which aids and abets the right-wing agenda against America’s women. You’ll search in vain for news of right wing terrorism but see plenty of false allegations against Planned Parenthood that fuels terrorist attacks.
As Tanya Riordan, a vice president with Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, told SPLC’s Hatewatch, the videos don’t expose any wrongdoing on the part of the women’s health provider, but “they are simply inciting extremists and acts of violence.”
The mainstream media doesn’t want to tell you about the real wrongdoing, which is a right wing terrorism that is more prevalent than anybody imagines.
Image from SurvivalKit.com
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
America went down hill when they took god out of Churches and put in the Republican Party and made Rush Limbaugh their new Jesus.
I couldn’t agree more with this post. The so called MSM is getting next to worthless. They don’t say a thing on this issue but they sure have plenty of air time for surfboarding chipmunk videos and British royal family updates.
Haven’t watched TV or listened to radio in years. Sadly, Rachel Maddow’s future is probably not bright because middle class wealth creators can’t afford the private cable TV quarterly profit taxes. Wall Street’s media will have to skew it’s offerings toward the wealth destroyers and financial parasites, as their futures are much brighter, at least until the bones of the American economy have been picked clean.
The corporate presstitution of journalism and the incitement of stochastic terrorism through inflammatory rhetoric and the ubiquity of slaughterarms is part of a common scheme: to control a country whose governance would never have been conceded by a fearless and informed electorate.
and the wet noodle passionless democrats just sit there and do nothing,the scumbag republicans are literally trying to ruin Hilary and when we find out the Benghazi stuff is all bullshit,im mean they want Hilary in jail,and all Hilary can say is ‘I was very upset when I heard that’thats it you have got to be joking,i would have said,’every one of you lowlife scums will be dealt with harshly,i will make sure you are out of Washington,something with some teeth,but no,gowdy,issa,boehner will get away again,hell they steal elections and lie and gerrymander and cheat and destroy the poor and the dems just let them do it without a peep,
Please, Mr. Wipe, try using a less breathless syntax. That was hard to parse. Another screen name might also be more appropriate.
American terrorists should garner much more attention from the press and law enforcement. They have no regard towards women and their choices. Law enforcement needs to infiltrate and prosecute these false xtians who preach nothing but hate and harm. And the mainstream press, if they refuse to report the stories, should be ashamed of themselves. They have lost the country, as far as trustworthiness.
Hraf said, “For the Nazis it was synagogues that were the target. For our own breed of fascists, it is Planned Parenthood clinics. We cannot and must not remain silent about what is happening in this country.”
Agreed, but, then there’s this from a Wiki page on the Holocaust:
“…Shortly after the purge in 1934, a special division of the Gestapo was instituted to compile lists of gay individuals. In 1936, Himmler created the Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung (Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion)”.
The Nazi’s didn’t conflate the two, but, the radical right-wing religious fundies,
…I’ll let the reader come to their own conclusion…
…and once again, the Reich Wing has showed how infectious thier corruption is to even news services…even MSNBC is changing to Teatard Standard Propaganda…I don’t even turn on my TV on during the week until 6pm CST, when Hardball starts…
Well, from this thread, there seems to be a consensus that the “News Media” is just not up to the task anymore for various reasons. So.
How about someone like Bloomberg taking over a few newspapers, shows, personnel etc. Hire real news journalists, bring over Maddow and more? Just a thought.
I guaran-damn-tee you if gun stores or gun manufacturers were being fire bombed, we’d have wall-to-wall media coverage then.
Along with the movie “Wag The Dog”, there’s also another little known, chilling movie based on a true story about the life of journalist Gary Webb titled “Kill The Messenger”. Webb’s story just happened to be “overlooked” due to a sordid tale as old as The Bible of a high powered man’s sexual dalliances.
Yep! You guessed it. President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
“Kill The Messenger” Plesse check it out and realize once and for all just how organized the Mafia, excuse me, I mean the Media really is.
You know what is funny?
Watching yall scream at how the media is so far right its just a republican propaganda machine, then go to a far right site and watch them scream about how the media is a liberal propaganda machine.
Right left don’t matter you guys are very entertaining.
Our MSM is no better than Pravda, however at least the Soviets realized they were being lied to all the time.
Media cares about the agenda owners want produced, and what select follwers want to know. They just flutter from 10 second headline, to headline. They don’t report much of value any more. Honest and critical reporting hasn’t happened in years. Dinosaurs with scruples have retired and were replaced with talking head brainless sell-outs. They might as well be pitching their useless crap on the Home Shopping Networks.
Neil Postman wrote “Amusing Ourselves to Death” in 1984. He nailed it.
they know who watches them. they know how radical these anti-choice fanatics are. they also know their advertisers will jump ship at any controversy. they know who signs their paychecks.
There are 6 corporations that own 90+% of the media & we must educate ourselves & beware of the trickery,lies,schemes,brainwashing false reports while they withhold important information from the sane.
DG, Check out this breath-taking NYT Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html
Hoping the American People are waking-up to see all the damage being done by Citizens-United!
“Dred Scott turned People Into Property.
Citizens United turned Property into People”
Well I guess I should be grateful that I am reading about terrorist attacks on Planned Parenthood Centers here. What I want to know is what is being done to find the perpetrators of this latest arson? We need to keep the heat on the police until we get an answer.
Right Shadowolf! Tuned into MSNBC a few days ago and within 15 minutes it seemed the right wings newest conduit to spread their hate and misinformation was Chuck Todd. It feels like the ones that are still there from Hardball on have softened their progressive left tendencies. MSNBC is changing.
We have to realize that the media is for the most part most favorable to conservative thought. The media has an agenda as well planned as Republicans. To believe otherwise is just not reasonable.
It’s critical to know and understand that the media is essentially owned and operated by conservative interests. Therefore, expecting real journalism and factual, honest reporting is a pipe dream. It ain’t gonna happen, because conservatives don’t go there. You have to look long and hard to find any media outlets that are actually “fair and balanced” (unlike Fox Noise) and that do their reporting in an unbiased, journalistic manner.
MSM bought and paid for by the GOP and Koch suckers.
The mainstream media will do whatever will stir the best reactions. They are not there to inform. They are there to make money, and, or, wield power. They have sacrificed the very concept of morality to their own ends.