Which comes first: Planned Parenthood or the First Amendment?

During the coming weeks and months, WORLD will follow not only the Houston legal assault on pro-life investigative reporters but also the response of liberal journalists. Will they defend traditional investigative techniques when used against one of their sacred cows, Planned Parenthood?

The pro-life group under attack is clearly searching for media allies. Its website states, “The Center for Medical Progress [CMP] uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press.” That’s true. Sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly, reporters over the decades have pretended to be what they’re not.

In this situation, CMP’s David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt face serious charges because they recorded lunch conversations, used false names on manufactured IDs, and acted in other ways as part of “an attempt to do harm” by closing down Planned Parenthood. One of the legal questions is whether a restaurant is a public place or whether customers there have the expectation of privacy.

Journalists and journalism professors discuss the ethics of investigative approaches, but if Daleiden goes to jail, numerous journalists should go to jail with him. Whether wanting to close down Planned Parenthood is doing harm or saving babies may become an interesting discussion among jury members. Since reporters have often conducted investigations with the goal of harming organizations they think are doing wrong, do liberal media folks really want reporters liable for felony prosecution?

This is also interesting because left-wing reporters regularly call for more investigative journalism “that makes a difference”—but not a difference for life. It’s somewhat like mainline clergy who prized the thinking of pastors from Africa and other parts of the “Third World,” until those leaders, reading and thinking for themselves, came out against homosexuality.

The Texas Observer, a left-wing stalwart, confessed to schadenfreude about the CMP indictments—that’s happiness over the troubles of others. We’re looking for other examples of either journalistic delight or horror, and we can use your help. As officials say regarding terrorist activities, if you see something, say something. Send a note to molasky@wng.org.