Lil White Lies: Pardon Me, Your Underlying is Showing (Again)

In this PolitiFact (PF) New Jersey ruling on a statement by a Republican state senator by the name of Michael Doherty, my conservative counterpart claims “the underlying argument” is  Doherty’s preface that Planned Parenthood does not provide much in the way of prenatal services (so, therefore, the ruling should be better than a "False."). The underlying argument which makes more sense is the ideological one, and that’s the reason Doherty does not want to reinstate $7.5 million funding: because part of it would go to Planned Parenthood. If a small part of what they do is pre-natal care, the rest of what they do is…well, by him, abortion. Didn’t Jon Kyl say that over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion? Oh, I’m sorry, that wasn’t meant to be a factual statement…but it’s what many diehard right-wing Republicans believe, and it’s NOT hyperbole.

Bury it?  He said it THREE times.

It should be noted that writer Bill Wichert wrote several times he was not disputing Doherty’s preceding statement that Planned Parenthood did not provide much prenatal care. He wasn’t exactly “burying” it as Bryan accuses in his headline; he says it three times in his review: “Doherty… was right about prenatal care representing a small part of the services offered by Planned Parenthood”…. “But for his overall argument that Planned Parenthood sees few prenatal patients, Doherty is right”… “Figures provided by Planned Parenthood confirm that prenatal care represents a small part of the services offered…” Wichert made it very clear that not only was Doherty correct, but that this was not what he was fact-checking. It’s specific in the heading, it’s where he did his research.

Bryan White is again substituting something mild, innocent and innocuous for what the “underlying argument” is and then doing his “I am the Final Authority on Truth” take on it in order to mask his social conservative ideology. His reasoning takes the same turn as on a PolitiFact ruling on a statement by Ann Coulter that radiation is good for you. He claimed she said it was healthful because she was “making a point about media coverage of Japanese radiation leaks” when in fact it was evident she was only promoting the nuclear power energy agenda of the Republicans.

But if he can’t replace the argument with his own, he can always say that this time it doesn’t count, as he does with Sarah and Todd Palin's Slim Jims.