Analysis of the anti-Planned Parenthood videos conducted by an independent firm has revealed that the selectively-edited videos are even more fraudulent than we knew.
The Center for Medical Progress front group, which created the videos, release what were purported to be the full, unedited versions, but according to independent analysis the so-called "full" videos aren't full at all.
via Media Matters
The analysis found that the videos "contain intentionally deceptive edits, missing footage and inaccurately transcribed conversations," according to an August 27 article from Politico, which obtained a copy of the report. The forensic analysis was conducted by independent transcription experts working for the research firm Fusion GPS, which was retained by Planned Parenthood. The experts found "42 instances in which CMP edited out content from the short as well as so-called full versions of the tapes" and that "at least two of the filmed interviews with Planned Parenthood officials are missing at least 30 minutes of content"
More:
Glenn Simpson, a partner at the firm and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, assembled three teams of neutral experts to comb through the tapes using special video software. He said the teams found that all of the videos analyzed -- even the supposedly "full," unedited footage the CMP released -- were missing large sections of time and misleadingly altered so that separate conversations appeared to take place in an uninterrupted take. Moreover, the forensic team found that the transcripts CMS released with the videos were frequently erroneous.
"It appears they commit what I would call 'wishful thinking' about what was said," Simpson told reporters Thursday.
What we already knew to be a fraud was even more fraudulent than anyone realized.
This compounds the embarrassment of Governors Bobby Jindal and Robert Bently who took the extraordinary measure of terminating their states' Medicaid provider contracts with Planned Parenthood without completing an investigation. Bobby Jindal event built a fucking outdoor theater to show the fraudulent videos.
This will also compound the embarrassment for Congressional Republicans who may or may not still have a desire to shut the government down over Planned Parenthood funding. Many of them and their colleagues in the Republican presidential field have spent the last two months campaigning against the organization and its funding.
I would be remiss not to mention that Republicans had these videos in their possession for weeks and months before they were revealed publicly. They spent a great deal of time coordinating their release with a corresponding political campaign, but they didn't bother to verify their authenticity themselves.
I suspect they made no attempt to vet the videos because, for them, the videos served as confirmation bias. They saw what they wanted to see. They saw what they thought they already knew.
Elected Republicans, including Bobby Jindal, have made fantastical claims about Planned Parenthood selling fetus parts "on the open market." Anyone who believes such lunacy is unlikely to be dissuaded by any countervailing evidence to the contrary. For them, this independent forensic analysis will change nothing.
I will not be surprised if the goal posts are shifted from the issue of fetal tissue research to... something else. Who knows? We may even go back to the birth control debate. Wouldn't that be great for the Republican party?