Fiorina slams media for spreading ‘propaganda’ on Planned Parenthood

Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says the media is spreading “propaganda” about Planned Parenthood.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO said the press has routinely ignored the facts to accuse her of mischaracterizing the contents of a video that was secretly recorded by anti-abortion activists.

{mosads}“You know, we were very explicit about where in the videotapes you could watch this image,” Fiorina said Wednesday on the Federalist Radio Hour. “Watching the media buy Planned Parenthood’s talking point hook, line and sinker has been sort of amazing.”

Fiorina also chastised the media for continuing to describe the Planned Parenthood videos as “heavily edited” despite forensic testing that she said refutes the claim.

“Everyone in the media — not everyone, but most people in the media have ignored the fact that those videos have been subjected to two rounds of forensic examination,” Fiorina said. “One of those forensic examiners was hired by Planned Parenthood itself, and both have concluded they were not in fact edited.”

“I just find it extraordinary the level to which people have refused to push back on what is obviously propaganda on Planned Parenthood’s part,” she added.

Planned Parenthood in August sent two-dozen pages of information to Congress about the undercover videos. The report, which was completed by the research firm Fusion GPS, said the tapes were “severely edited” in misleading ways, with conversations spliced to manipulate their meaning.

A second examination of the videos, conducted by forensics firm Coalfire Systems and commissioned by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group, found the videos are “authentic and show no evidence of manipulation.”

Fiorina also took House Republicans to task for their hearing with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, suggesting lawmakers didn’t press hard enough with their questioning.

“I think we need a fearless fighter on the issues we care about,” Fiorina said. “And I think it’s fair to say that I have been more fearless on this and other issues than many and, yes, than many on Capitol Hill.”

The House announced on Wednesday that it would open an investigation into Planned Parenthood, stemming from a series of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress on the group’s handling of fetal tissue donations from abortions.

Fiorina made the disputed claim about one of the Planned Parenthood videos at the second GOP primary debate last month.

She said a video showed “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

Planned Parenthood accused Fiorina of lying.

“There is no video showing anything like what she claims. It’s just totally false, no matter how many times she repeats it,” spokesman Eric Ferrero said in a statement after the debate.