As Twitchy reported, the California prosecutors on Tuesday charged David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress with 15 felonies in connection with their undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the price of limbs and organs.
Prosecutors claimed that Daleiden and Merritt invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without their consent, but quite a few people wondered when journalists would speak out in their defense, seeing as the techniques they had employed had been celebrated when used to investigate animal cruelty.
Surprisingly, a writer with Mother Jones was likely the first of the “blue checkmarks” on Twitter to speak up.
California Should Leave Undercover Video Activists Alone https://t.co/5EifPIKFeu
— Kevin Drum (@kdrum) March 29, 2017
This from a prominent liberal journalist. Good for him. https://t.co/k3jwcnz4N5
— Brit Hume (@brithume) March 29, 2017
Though Drum did write at Mother Jones that the filing of felony charges struck him as “political grandstanding,” he made it perfectly clear that he has “zero sympathy” for Daleiden and Merritt, who “edited their videos deceptively and basically lied about everything they did.”
If only he could get through it without the "deceptive editing" canard.
— ?It's?Almost ⛄️Christmas? (@jtLOL) March 30, 2017
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Well, two cheers, anyway. pic.twitter.com/dGhnqOWHc9
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) March 29, 2017
In another shocking move, the liberal editorial board of the Los Angeles Times also came out against the prosecution of Daleiden and Merritt, calling the felony charges “a disturbing overreach.”
The L.A. Times editorial board says the criminal charges for the Planned Parenthood are an overreach: https://t.co/cWoEyUfTU7
— Matt Pearce ? (@mattdpearce) March 30, 2017
Like Drum, though, the L.A. Times editorial board went out of its way to leave no doubt that Planned Parenthood is a beloved national institution that was wronged in this case; however, it shouldn’t be up to the State of California to file charges, but the companies featured in the videos, like StemExpress. (In fact, StemExpress announced in January that it had dropped its suit against CMP and Daleiden.)
The L.A. Times, in defending the “misguided” undercover filmmakers against prosecutorial overreach, noted that Daleiden’s “heavily edited” videos without question failed to discredit the healthcare provider (that is, Planned Parenthood), although they did have “an unfortunate chilling effect on the use of fetal tissue for groundbreaking scientific research.”
Daleiden noted Tuesday night that charges brought against him in Texas had been thrown out, but California is going to be California.
California can't help it. Illogical liberalism. It's become their religion.
— Ron Page (@RonPage2010) March 30, 2017
@kdrum California is past the point of no return. Don't expect anything meaningful or constructive from them. Sad but true.
— Jim Deimler (@JimDeimler) March 29, 2017
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Related:
Look what Kamala Harris’ Senate campaign is doing while she’s investigating a pro-life activist https://t.co/QVsZJKjvVV
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 6, 2016
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