Washington Post reporter Kelsey Snell caught lying and intentionally distorting 'abortion protester' story

October 26, 2015 By: J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) In the age of expanding New Media networks and old media watchdogs, you would think that mainstream media editors and reporters would do more to keep their liberal bias in check. But alas, that's not the case, as legacy media outlets are so ideologically compromised that they apparently prefer to continue shedding readers and revenue than to fulfill the founding fathers' vision of a free press as responsible arbiters of the truth.

In that vein, the Washington Post — always shilling for the progressive point of view while obscuring details about progressive figures who often find themselves in hot water — recently "fixed" errors in a story about comments made by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), regarding a question about human life from a CNSNews.com reporter.

However, despite the fixing, the paper only bothered to publicly acknowledge that it had corrected just one mistake. As CNSNews.com noted:

"Several hours after posting a news story with several errors, including in the headline — about a CNSNews.com reporter asking Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a question about human life — The Washington Post fixed the errors in the story by reporter Kelsey Snell but only noted one 'correction' at the story's end in the changed copy."

In October 1, CNSNews.com reporter Sam Dorman showed up at Pelosi's weekly Minority Leader press conference at the U.S. Capitol and asked her this question: "In reference to funding for Planned Parenthood, is an unborn baby with a human heart and a human liver a human being?"

Hiding behind the truth — and the mainstream media
Pelosi — a Catholic who is nevertheless an avid and enthusiastic supporter both of abortion and Planned Parenthood — answered, "Why don't you take your ideological questions — I don't, I don't have..." Dorman then followed up: "If it's not a human being, what species is it?"

While dodging that question, Pelosi fell back on her stock answer — that she's a "devout and practicing Catholic" (a faith that is vehemently opposed to abortion) and a "mother," adding, "I do not intend to respond to your questions, which have no basis in what public policy is, that we do here."

Following that exchange, Post reporter Kelsey Snell posted a piece online with this incorrect headline: "Nancy Pelosi shut down an abortion protestor's question in a press conference."

Huh?

Only, the question came from a duly and properly press-credentialed reporter from CNSNews.com, which further reported:

"In the lead of the story, Snell also incorrectly reported that Pelosi 'was not interested in entertaining questions ... from an anti-abortion protestor who shouted a question to the California Democrat during her weekly press conference.'

"There was no 'anti-abortion protestor' and the question was not 'shouted.' ... In addition, the lead is further misleading because it has changed from the headline's 'abortion protestor's' to 'anti-abortion protestor.' "

No effort to fact-check
In the very next paragraph, Snell wrote that "the protestor sat in the first row of the presser and spoke up over several reporters vying to ask a question of the Democratic leaders."

She then wrote, "It was unclear who the questioner was and for which news organization they worked" — as the facts, once again, seemingly change before the reader's eye. Now, suddenly, the "anti-abortion protestor" has become someone from a "news organization."

It should be noted that Snell completely shirked her fact-checking responsibilities as a reporter — she never once spoke to Dorman at the press conference, never asked for his name or news affiliation, did not email him afterward and never made a phone call to CNSNews.com to clarify details.

These are basic reporting functions.

Later, Dorman tweeted Snell informing her that he was a credentialed reporter; she replied that she had informed editors of the change.

You can read about the entire pathetic episode here.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for updates as Natural News rolls out dozens of new partner sites in the coming months.

Sources:

AlternativeNews.com

MediaFactWatch.com

NaturalNews.com

CNSNews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051701_Washington_Post_fact_checking_dishonest_journalism.html#ixzz3poYs8Nbm