MSNBC host Joe Scarborough ripped the media for bias in how it covers abortion immediately after Morning Joe aired a slanted NBC News segment on the undercover Planned Parenthood videos about fetal organ sales.
"Wow," he said. "I've got to say of all the areas where I think there's media bias, I think the greatest area is on this issue. I think most reporters do the best job they can do, and they try to be as fair as possible, but when it comes to the issue of abortion, there is the greatest built-in bias, and it is a completely cultural bias. It's unintended. But if the roles were reversed, we do this all the time but it's true, and there was a group on the right doing what Planned Parenthood has done on the left, there would be indictments already going down."
The news package, reported by Hallie Jackson, began with her saying the "anti-abortion group is inflaming a controversy over how Planned Parenthood donates fetal tissue used for medical research." Jackson also reported Planned Parenthood's website had been "hacked," a claim that is under dispute, with no discussion at all about the group's lawyerly language claiming it was an "extremist attack" that was blocking 200,000 people from "information and care."
That has led to wide speculation on the right that the "hack" was faked and simply a public relations stunt to shift focus to demonizing the pro-life movement as extremist.
Jackson also said "the organization braces for a higher-stakes attack in Congress."
Jackson did not air any questions of a Planned Parenthood executive who appeared in the segment defending its conduct regarding fetal tissue, but she did show her aggressive one of David Deleiden, part of the Center for Medical Progress that produced the videos.
"Is this about a debate over fetal tissue donation, or is this about abortion and doing something to make waves to reignite that debate?" she asked.
"I don't think it's an either-or, and I don't think it has to be either one of those two," he said. "This is about documenting and illustrating really clearly for the American people what Planned Parenthood does to the body parts of the babies that they abort."
Former Republican chairman Michael Steele agreed with Scarborough, saying the press is unwilling to truly dig into the issue.