Our friends at Vox Nova have a fine takedown of the American Papist who wonders why more of us on the left have not joined him in applauding a group that stages videotaped encounters with the staff at Planned Parenthood clinics in an effort to "expose" them and their nefarious deeds.
I am no fan of Planned Parenthood. But, these juvenile, staged, videotaped encounters, like the earlier efforts to take on and take down ACORN, are not worthy of comment. They entirely miss the fact that the people they are "exposing" are, perhaps, not as morally indignant as the Papist wants them to be because they are trying to figure out what the hell is going on. If someone goes in with a problem, really any problem, a counselor should not attack them. It takes a while to answer basic questions: Is this person making this up? Is this person mentally unbalanced? Is this a hoax? How desperate is this person? The sense of bewilderment is not the same as a sense of moral laxity.
That said, in the Papist's defense, one of the things the blogosphere does well is keep everyone on their toes. Too often, we on the left do not call attention to stories that make our side look bad and the same happens on the right. The Papist has every right, even an obligation, to call out those with whom he disagrees but next time, perhaps, he could focus on something a little more substantial than these faux-investigative reports that are sophomoric at best.