Usually, Live Action just ignores Media Matters. After all, there’s not much there you can’t find on the AOL/Huffington Post or the Democratic Underground. We were going to let slide their usual accusations that our new video was “a hoax” and that we were “falsely smearing Planned Parenthood President” Cecile Richards –until they cooked up a little hoax of their own. In this recent matter of the missing mammograms, we think we have to set the record straight.
Media Matters made this astounding claim on Wednesday:
Media Matters claimed that Planned Parenthood clinics in Waco, TX and Tucson, AZ do in fact provide mammograms. Well, we called both Planned Parenthood clinics in Waco, TX, and the Tucson, AZ clinic, to see if our actor could make a mammogram appointment with them. Based on the results, let’s say Media Matters got some false positives:
Mary Ruth Duncan Women’s Health Center
1121 Ross Avenue
PO Box 1518
Waco, TX 76703
p: 254.759.5750PP: This is Cindy, how may I help you?
Caller: Hi, I was wondering if I could come in for a mammogram appointment?
PP: No, we don’t do mammograms here at Planned Parenthood.Audre Rapaport Women’s Health Center
1927 Columbus Ave
P.O. Box 1459
Waco, TX 76701
p: 254.759.5772Caller: Hi Alice, I was hoping to schedule a mammogram appointment at Planned Parenthood. Do you provide mammograms?
PP: Have you–okay, you want to schedule a mammogram appointment? We don’t do mammograms here at Planned Parenthood.Jean Hoffman Health Center
529 W. Wetmore Rd.
Tucson, AZ 85705
p: 520.884.5562PP: Thank you for calling Planned Parenthood Arizona, my name is Melissa, how may I assist you?
Caller: Hi, I was wondering if I could schedule a mammogram appointment? Do you provide mammograms?
PP: No, we don’t, I’m sorry.
Breitbart’s Retracto the Correction Alpaca requested a retraction of Media Matters’ inaccurate reporting that Planned Parenthood clinics in Waco, TX and Tucson, AZ do in fact provide mammograms. Media Matters’ shot back a nasty “Request Denied” to the poor packmule, and insisted “our initial piece was in fact accurate.”
In MM’s latest screed, they drop the argument about Tucson altogether (perhaps because they realized it rested on particularly flimsy evidence–an advertisement for another group’s “mammovan” to visit the clinic parking lot back in 2009. Plus, our video from Wednesday included a PP AZ representative admitting “We don’t provide those services whatsoever” and decided to focus entirely on Waco. And that’s where MM goes wacko.
[youtube aq0kBkUZbvQ nolink]
They use a statement (which they have conspicuously not linked in their post) by PP Central TX CEO Felicia Chase Goodwin that says Planned Parenthood refers for mammograms to mean that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms:
“provides referrals and pays for mammograms and diagnostic follow up treatment for our patients at area radiology and surgical clinics.”
And then they drop the term “mammograms” altogether and cite the Texas Dept of Health’s listing of PP as a breast cancer screening provider:
“It’s not just Media Matters and Planned Parenthood who say that the Waco clinic provides cancer screenings; the Texas Department of Health says so.”
There are two types of breast cancer screening: manual exams, and mammograms. As everyone but Media Matters is now well aware, Planned Parenthood only does the former. And speaking of the Texas Department of Health, here’s an e-mail from them suggesting that Planned
Parenthood in Texas isn’t even licensed to perform mammograms:
So it should be pretty clear why Retracto wants that correction. Either Media Matters issues a correction or admits that it’s purpose isn’t media, it’s propaganda. Their call.
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