NPR pulls Planned Parenthood ads. Pandering to Republicans?

[madfloridian]

I am very angry at the way Planned Parenthood has been used as a political football. It's ridiculous and petty.

RH Reality Check posts a memo from NPR leadership that sounds like they fear the Republicans. And it sounds like they will hurt Planned Parenthood because of that fear.

NPR Station Pulls Planned Parenthood Spots During Budget Debate

Is National Public Radio trying too hard to try and prove its "unbiased" stance by overreacting and bending over backwards for Republicans? A station out of California may be doing just that, pulling ads from Planned Parenthood in order to not raise "questions" about their "editorial and sales practices" according to a leaked memo.

The full memo reads:

Given that the budget debate in congress is focusing today on abortion in general and Planned Parenthood by extension, let us suspend airing any Planned Parenthood spots effective immediately.

There is nothing wrong with the spots per se, or with our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, but for a few days their presence on our air might raise questions in the mind of the “reasonable listener” regarding our editorial and sales practices.

I expect this will be a short-term suspension. In fact, let’s go ahead and plan to resume the Planned Parenthood spots on Monday. If we need to extend the suspension, I’ll let you know.

At the last minute the Democrats came out in support of Planned Parenthood. That is not good enough. There should have been someone in our party leadership out there standing up for the group all along....telling the truth about the good they do.

We have to stop letting the Republicans control the message. Planned Parenthood should never have been on the chopping block of funds at all.

I will bet those Crisis Pregnancy Centers were never considered for cuts. I remember when Tim Kaine, outgoing DNC chair, enabled these anti-choice centers in Virginia. They get money and publicity in Florida and other states as well.

Chair of Democratic party blasted by NARAL for okaying CPC

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also known as pregnancy resource centers, are non-profit organizations established by pro-life supporters that work to persuade pregnant women to give birth rather than have an abortion. Most CPCs are in the United States. CPCs are usually affiliated with pro-life Christian organizations; two such organizations are Care Net and Heartbeat International. CPCs are distinct from pregnancy options counseling, which offers secular, medically-based information about choices concerning pregnancy, including information about abortion.

More:

The abortion-rights wing of the Democratic Party is none too happy today with a top leader.

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, President Obama's hand-picked chairman of the Democratic National Committee, signed a bill including state funding for crisis pregnancy centers, which abortion right advocates calls "anti-choice organizations."

The NARAL Pro-Choice America political action committee said today that Kaine has "taken action that’s inconsistent with the strong pro-choice platform adopted by party leaders last August."

I am not surprised that a fight for Planned Parenthood only happened after the group had to fight their own battles for months. Our party appears to have lost its passion for women's reproductive rights.

[madfloridian]

1. If you missed Ezra Klein's post about the work of Planned Parenthood..

here is a link.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/what-planned-parenthood-actually-does/2011/04/06/AFhBPa2C_blog.html

"With Planned Parenthood being either the major obstacle to a budget deal or one of the major obstacles to a budget deal, it’s worth taking a minute explaining what they do — and what they don’t do.

As you can see in the chart atop this post, abortion services account for about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s activities. That’s less than cancer screening and prevention (16 percent), STD testing for both men and women (35 percent), and contraception (also 35 percent). About 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s users are over age 20, and 75 percent have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line. Planned Parenthood itself estimates it prevents more than 620,000 unintended pregnancies each year, and 220,000 abortions. It’s also worth noting that federal law already forbids Planned Parenthood from using the funds it receives from the government for abortions.

So though the fight over Planned Parenthood might be about abortion, Planned Parenthood itself isn’t about abortion. It’s primarily about contraception and reproductive health."

[corpseratemedia]

2. the powers that be seem to be losing their collective mind

you dont pander to what are now radical extremists

[madfloridian]

3. You are right, you can't compromise with extremists.

But they are trying to do so, and it won't work.

[russspeakeasy]

12. collective minds and collective guts.

Has anyone found Obama's comfortable shoes yet?

[madfloridian]

4. The Republicans are not yet done with Planned Parenthood.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/4485/5_reasons_why_the_gop_push_defund_planned_parenthood_won%27t_go_away/

"On Friday afternoon, before the agreement between the White House and Congressional leadership averted a government shutdown, Rep. Mike Pence, the leader of the Republican charge to defund Planned Parenthood, released the following statement:

It has been erroneously reported in the media that Congressman Pence has signaled a willingness to accept a compromise on the Pence Amendment in the negotiations over a long-term Continuing Resolution. These reports are inaccurate. Congressman Pence has made no statement concerning the ongoing negotiations and remains committed to the Pence Amendment and will continue to work with colleagues to include this measure in any final legislation.

While it's true that Obama and the Democratic leadership in the Senate stood their ground on the Planned Parenthood funding, it's also true that the Republican-led House will not give up on its quest to end it. Here's why:

1. The Republican Party's religious right base has been led to believe for years that "defunding Planned Parenthood" is a principal goal of a Republican Congressional takeover."

[Thunderstruck]

5. Wait...what?

Didn't the fucking Regressives vote to defund NPR?

Why the fuck is NPR now sucking the Regressives ass?

[Cresent City Kid]

16. Really

Remember when NPR and PBS had no ads of any kind? I remember back in the 80's they started slipping in the ads which seemed weird to me after growing up in the 70's with commercial free public broadcasting.

I understand adapting to survive, but this is too deferential.

[madrchsod]

6. cowards

[defendandprotect]

7. Just another organization GOP wants to knock out -- wasn't O'Keefe also after them?

Hartmann was point out today that PP saves America money by giving pap tests, etal

to poor women -- keeping more serious issues from progressing -- cancers, etal.

Catching them early when they can more easily be treated --

If you were expecting NPR to have some guts, don't think it's going to happen --

they are long -- long gone!!

[KamaAina]

8. It's one NPR affiliate, KPCC in Pasadena

http://www.scpr.org

To contact us directly...
89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio
474 South Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91105

» Ph: [phone]
» Fax: [phone]

[IcyPeas]

9. the response I got from NPR...

my comment was:
_______________________________________________
Reason for contacting us:
Press / Media Relations
Message:
I am sorry and disapointed to hear this "...(KPCC)suspended its
regularly-scheduled Planned Parenthood spots on Friday, in response to
Republican demands that Congress eliminate federal funding for the family
planning group"
___________________________________
NPR's response:

Dear Pauline:
KPCC's decision to temporarily suspend Planned Parenthood underwriting credits on Friday was a routine procedural one. It was not about Planned Parenthood. It was about an underwriter that happened briefly to become the center of a major news story.

When that happens at KPCC, our standard practice is to "bump" credits to avoid the appearance of any conflict. This is a common policy at many news radio stations, and something that happens a few times each year at KPCC.

Ultimately the suspension affected only two credits for Planned Parenthood that were scheduled for Friday afternoon. All Planned Parenthood credits have now returned to their normal schedule and placement on our air and on the KPCC website.

Thanks for listening to KPCC, for your membership support, and taking the time to write.

Craig Curtis

KPCC Program Director

[gratuitous]

18. So, they'll be suspending ads from ADM, Monsanto, . . .

In a pig's eye.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. from what I hear from my NPR and PBS employed friends, "you can spot them by their yellow ties"

the bushie minnions that infiltrated both outlets back in the decade of Bush,,,,they all wear yellow ties....it's how they recognised each other.

[sulphurdunn]

11. NPR has also been doing weekly

hit pieces on public education too. They blow the horn of education reform for several minutes and then absently insert a ten second rebuttal. That's called objectivity. NPR has become just a compromised appendage of corporate propaganda with a castrated "liberal" slant.

[bertman]

13. I am probably going to have a stroke when some Democrat other than the usual

suspects (Kucinich, Weiner, Schakowsky, Brown) says on national TeeVee that the Republicans have lost their minds and are trying to destroy everything that does not conform to their narrow, vindictive, moral code.

NPR lost me back in 2003 with their incessant parroting of the Bush-Cheney rationale for war in Iraq.

Our local affiliates have great programming, but the national organization is full of chickenshits who suck up for corporate dollars.

[jwirr]

14. Hey gop, don't cut us - cut them. That is really standing shoulder to

shoulder!:sarcasm:

[stevedeshazer]

15. I feel old. NPR didn't even have ads once upon a time.

:hide:

[Cresent City Kid]

17. I jumped in above with the same thought but you beat me to it

It seemed strange to see ads on public tv and radio, as strange as not seeing them on CBS. Reagan's head nearly exploded at the idea of educational programming being piped into the homes of poor children for free, with no commercials for Sugar Smacks.

[DFW]

19. It should never even have been possible

These days, the extreme right yells, "Tea!" and people who should have nothing to fear instead ask "Milk or lemon?"

What will it take before someone figures out that we are facing a well-financed version of Yertle the Turtle, and
all someone has to do to stop them is refuse, openly and forcefully, to be intimidated by their tactics?

Wilting in the face of a bully only reinforces, to him, that being a bully is what gets his way. It's true, whether on
the elementary school playground, when negotiating the status of the Sudetenland, or when dealing with Teabaggers.

[madfloridian]

20. Very true about wilting in the face of a bully.

There has been too much of it.

[suffragette]

21. K&R

[upi402]

22. NPR is on bended knee to Repukes

I stopped donating after they refused to air 'The Panama Deception' -claiming IT was unbalanced (nevermind is was THE balance to 100% of the TV News!)

Then the BS Kennedy assasination "documentary" justifying the Warren Commission. They shot a dry skull, filled with chalk, and some powder puffed backwards... THEREFORE Kennedy could have been shot from behind and his skull would blow off back toward the shooter.

uhhh:silly:

[FormerDittoHead]

23. The thing mystifies me about NPR's kowtowing to the right is that THE RIGHT DOESN'T LISTEN TO THEM.

The programming shifts to pledge drive (ugh!) - WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK ARE GIVING TO THEIR STATIONS????

I hate to say this, but if the gov't can't fund them apolitically, then they shouldn't fund them. Overall, the Fed's contribution is a small percentage, and if it means having more factual, truthful, academic (ie: progressive) coverage of topics, I think they'd be able to make up the difference in added pledges, starting with ME.

[bongbong]

24. My NPR moment

The first time I heard Jonah "my mommie got me everything" Goldberg* as a commentator on NPR my jaw hit the floor. My jaw hurt so much that I had to stop sending donations to NPR - which used to be $120 a year, every year.

* (the mega-failure who wrote the lie-filled book equating fascism & Liberalism)