News of the Komen Foundation's backpedaling regarding its grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates prompted liberal journalist Andrea Mitchell to do a victory lap on her 1 p.m. Eastern Andrea Mitchell Reports program today.
Mitchell began by noting that under "mounting pressure," Komen founder Nancy Brinker released an apology, an excerpt of which Mitchell read before interviewing pro-choice Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) by telephone about the development. [MP3 audio here; video follows page break]
"In looking at the wording from Komen today, do you think that this is a clear-cut reversal, or is it simply something to get past the immediate controversy," Mitchell inquired.
Boxer replied that it was a "reversal" that made her "very happy" because "women's health triumphed over right-wing politics." The NARAL-endorsed California senator gushed that Mitchell's hostile interview with Komen founder Nancy Brinker "helped bring this [reversal] about" and then laughably pontificated that "health care for our people should never be politicized from any side." Mitchell, of course, failed to point out Boxer's hypocrisy, seeing as she and 25 other liberal U.S. senators fundamentally made the issue a political flashpoint with their letter to Komen yesterday.
"There is almost hand-to-hand combat over the issue of birth control going on," in the U.S. Congress, the hyperbolic pro-choice senator added. "We are in battle here, women's health is under attack."
An objective journalist might object to such overheated rhetoric, but Mitchell failed to call Boxer on it, opting instead to replay a portion of yesterday's interview with Ambassador Nancy Brinker, setting up Boxer to slam Brinker's "trumped-up excuse" for dumping Planned Parenthood as "gobbledygook."
"The fact is... [there was] political pressure" on Komen that was "coming from the far-right wing" that "just don't believe... that women should have reproductive health care," Boxer proclaimed.
Again, Boxer offered no evidence of the "far-right wing" having put political pressure on Komen to ditch Planned Parenthood, nor did Mitchell ask her for evidence. Instead, Mitchell closed the interview by thanking her guest for "everything you've done on this," that is, thanking her for putting pressure on Komen to recant.
