Katie Couric’s 2014 documentary Fed Up includes instances of deceptive editing similar to 2016’s Under the Gun, according to several people familiar with the making of the film.
Fed Up, which focuses on obesity and the food industry, was directed by Stephanie Soechtig and produced by Couric. The film includes two interviews with figures who hold viewpoints counter to the narrative of the film, and sources say both interviews include at least one misleading or deceptive edit intended to embarrass the interviewee.
Dr. David Allison, an interview subject in the film and the director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, says he was a victim of shoddy journalism. “What she did to me is antithetical to not only just human decency and civility but it is antithetical to the spirit of science and democratic dialogue,” he told the Washington Free Beacon.
After a brief exchange in the film between Allison and Couric over whether or not sugary beverages contribute more to obesity than other foods, Couric asks Allison about the science behind his objections. Allison then begins to explain before stumbling and asking Couric if he could pause to “get his thoughts together.”
Allison said Couric had told him it would be all right to pause and gather his thoughts at any point during the interview if he felt he needed to. (Read more from “Katie Couric Accused of Deceptive Editing in Second Documentary” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/2400298_1280x864.jpg8641280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-08 22:27:322016-06-09 02:33:43Katie Couric Accused of Deceptive Editing in Second Documentary
Deshauna Barber is a first lieutenant in the Army Reserves and is getting a flurry of attention for her comment during the Miss USA pageant about women in combat roles. Her statements demonstrated little forethought on the issue, but, hey, why let the reality of direct ground combat against the likes of ISIS ruin a good “I am woman, hear me roar” moment? And hey, getting on the women-in-combat feminist bandwagon may have clinched her the Miss USA crown.
When asked about her thoughts on women in combat roles, the IT analyst from North Washington D.C. said, “As a commander of my unit, I am powerful. I am dedicated and it is important that we recognize that gender does not limit us in the United States Army.” And “I think it was an amazing job by our government to allow women to integrate to every branch of the military … We are just as tough as men.”
I confess that I don’t know what being an IT analyst in the weekend-warrior Army Reserves is like. I do know about IT in the Marines, and both being a Marine and supporting communications for deployed Marines is much harder, but it still ain’t direct ground combat. I’ve no doubt that Lt. Barber is powerful and dedicated, and a valuable — not to mention beautiful — addition to our Armed Forces. But she hasn’t trained and competed with male infantry. Her job in the Army reserves does not include orders to serve with men in the combat arms, and she knows nothing about it.
We have ample empirical data on the question of women in combat roles from recent testing, not to mention hundreds of years of experience learning what helps and what hinders victory in battle.
Barber will never bear the consequences of what she so mindlessly advocates. She’d be the one they shoot first as an easy target. And so beautiful, in her bikini and dangly earrings, or her be-makeuped soft-focus selfie in uniform. Not distracting at all. ISIS is not just laughing at us. They’re licking their chops at our self-imposed weakness. But we have our Charlie’s Angel delivering the Obama party line. She’s won the beauty pageant; just wait ‘til she starts her acting career.
Firebrand Gunnery Sergeant (Ret) Jessie Jane Duff, who served two decades in the Marines and advocates strongly that we should not diminish our combat readiness, had some choice tweets for the young LT:
The irony of being judged in a bikini and stating women are just as tough as men escapes Miss USA. I'm sure ISIS will fear her shiny crown.
This was an ideal opportunity for her to stand up and stand for the enlisted women who will die in mass quantity in combat … She’s missing the entire data … Yes, we’re as mentally tough as men, but all data demonstrates that the women are performing at the bottom 25th percentile with men in infantry units. We’re setting them up for failure. Her speech, what she said was perfect if she had just closed with, “We should not lift a blanket policy without evaluating this closer because this isn’t about equality … this is about combat readiness and the mission is first.” That would have gotten just as much applause and people would have celebrated her for defending the women that have to go out there and perform with these men … Hand to hand combat? There is no equality in it. The men will decimate women in hand-to-hand combat.
This week we commemorate the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. Our reflections on young men storming the beaches of Normandy should remind us of the importance of defining precisely what is involved in “direct ground combat.” It’s great that Barber feels powerful, but the truth is that physically she’s a twig, and ISIS, or Iran or North Korea would make mince-meat out of her in five seconds.
She may be as tough as other keyboard commando Army Reservists, but she has no credibility on killing our enemies at point-blank range. She is no authority in comparison to three years and over 50 documents’ worth of scientific testing data submitted by the Marine Corps to the Pentagon, which showed that integrated units underperform on 69% of tasks and women get injured more than twice as much as men. Dedication has little relevance against these realities, which would severely degrade the lethality and survivability of our most elite fighting units.
In our upside-down “now,” where the Left is trying to hammer at us that one’s biological sex is meaningless, Nature simply will not comply, especially in the most violent activity known to mankind. As we’re fighting the most barbaric enemy we’ve ever faced, we need the manliest, most powerful, aggressive, testosterone-laden American alpha males that our taxpayer dollars can buy in order to destroy our enemies and come home quickly and in one piece. Miss USA is a beautiful stick who’d have no chance killing ISIS fighters in hand-to-hand combat.
Deshauna Barber makes a great poster, and now we all know what she looks like underneath her uniform. It’s Combat Barbie Miss USA. But direct ground combat is not a beauty pageant stage. Barber is the media’s latest darling for being a satisfactorily diverse and pretty package delivering the government-approved party line. Meanwhile technology has not alleviated the need for brute strength and speed that women simply don’t provide, and they bring with them serious additional risks that men simply don’t.
Meanwhile, the Senate is voting on whether to subject America’s young daughters to mandatory registration for the draft as combat replacements. The girl next door will not have stunt doubles to fill in for the bloody parts, and for her it won’t be about “a few women who want to.” (For more from the author of “Sorry Miss USA, but Direct Combat Is Not a Beauty Pageant Stage” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Miss_USA_2004_rehearsals_1-1.jpg8601400Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-08 00:29:022016-06-08 02:59:44Sorry Miss USA, but Direct Combat Is Not a Beauty Pageant Stage
A multi-state abortion provider boasting a high-end, “spa-like” experience is attempting to de-stigmatize the procedure through a crowd-funded ad campaign in Atlanta.
Carafem has designed its abortion clinic to look like a spa and offers the women who go there to abort their unborn babies “hot tea” and “comfy robes.” They gained national attention last year for an advertising campaign that some suggested “glamorized” abortion.
Carafem opened its first facility in the greater Washington metro area in spring 2015, boasting comfy chairs and hot tea for women seeking abortions.
“It was important for us to try to present an upgraded, almost spa-like feel,” Melissa S. Grant, vice president of health services for the clinic told the Washington Post.
The organization subsequently announced its capital city arrival with brash, hot pink ads saying “Abortion? Yeah, we do that,” on the D.C. metro system. Now, it hopes to bring the same advertising experience to the Peach State.
For its new location, which open in Atlanta this summer, the abortion provider plans to roll out a “Doors Open Atlanta” campaign, proffering abortion, birth control, and other services to women in the same “bold and unapologetic” hot pink motif, according to a Monday press release.
In addition, Carafem is looking for some extra scratch via Crowdsourcing in order to pay for the ads, LifeNews reports.
The abortion business said its ads have been censored three times; but now it wants to raise enough money to try again. Carafem recently launched a fundraising campaign to pay for ads in Atlanta. The ads are hot pink with emoji images and the word “abortion” printed in bold letters.
“As we just opened our doors in Atlanta and need to get the word out, we thought why not try and shake things up by advertising our services in a major conservative newspaper for a year,” the business wrote.
The message Carafem wants its advertising to convey is that abortion is safe, clean, even caring, all the while letting women know where to get abortions in a way that “normalizes and destigmatizes” the procedure.
“We don’t want to talk in hushed tones. We use the A-word.” Carafem President Christopher Purdy said. “It’s fresh, it’s modern, it’s clean, it’s caring. That’s the brand we’re trying to create.”
Pro-Life groups are up in-arms.
The president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said “Even people who support abortion rights don’t necessarily see it as something to celebrate. They want to think about [abortion] as a necessary evil.” National Right to Life president, Carol Tobias, added, “Abortion is not pleasant and trying to put pretty wrappings around the procedure isn’t going to make any difference.”
Whether an abortion takes place at a run-down Gosnell-like facility or at a “high-end salon,” abortion always, 100% of the time, kills an unborn child and hurts the family involved.
(For more from the author of “Abortion ‘Spas’: The Left’s Latest Attempt to Glamorize Murdering the Unborn” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-122.jpg10801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-06 18:14:302016-06-07 02:35:32Abortion ‘Spas’: The Left’s Latest Attempt to Glamorize Murdering the Unborn
Republicans on a special House panel investigating the market for fetal tissue released new documents that they said show the procurement company StemExpress marked up the price for body parts, organs, and other tissue from aborted babies 400 to 600 percent when selling the samples to researchers.
One example of such markups of four to six times cost is seven brains sold by StemExpress to Yale University School of Medicine for $715 each, according to the documents.
The documents also appear to show that three abortion clinics, including two Planned Parenthood affiliates, illegally granted StemExpress access to personally identifiable information protected under federal privacy law.
And, the documents suggest, the clinics used invalid patient consent forms to obtain permission to harvest body parts from aborted babies.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chairman of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, sent two letters Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services requesting a “swift and full investigation” into “systemic” violations.
“There’s a business contract between StemExpress and the abortion clinics under which both sides make a profit from the baby body parts inside the young woman’s womb,” Blackburn said in a prepared statement, adding:
The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman: Her baby is now a profit center. This betrayal of a young woman’s trust should disgust us all. It takes financial advantage, obtains consent through coercion, and deceives the woman, all in violation of federal privacy laws.
StemExpress told The Daily Signal that Blackburn is making “continued unfounded accusations.”
Specifically, Blackburn says documents obtained through the panel’s investigation show StemExpress and several abortion clinics violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and federal regulations governing research involving human subjects.
HIPPA is a federal law that gives patients the right to determine where and when their private medical information is disclosed. This includes personally identifiable information such as name, age, and Social Security number, along with any present, future, or past health data.
In her letters, addressed to two officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, Blackburn said several abortion clinics provided StemExpress—which is not covered by HIPPA—with personally identifiable information so that StemExpress could fulfill orders from researchers for tissue from aborted babies.
HIPPA covers abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood, Blackburn notes.
‘Unfounded Accusations’
In a statement to The Daily Signal, a spokesman for StemExpress said the tissue procurement company is “confident there has been no violation of law and appropriate consents were made for every fetal tissue donation,” adding:
We welcome the opportunity to answer any questions from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or any other agency related to Representative Blackburn’s continued unfounded accusations. StemExpress will continue to support lifesaving research.
The three abortion clinics named in the investigation are all in California: Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in San Jose, Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific in Concord (currently known as Planned Parenthood of Northern California), and Family Planning Specialists Medical Group in Oakland.
The Daily Signal sought comment from the organizations, which did not respond to phone calls before publication of this article.
Blackburn’s letters, first reported by Fox News, ask the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate potential violations of HIPAA and federal regulations pertaining to the fetal tissue market. The letters are addressed to Jocelyn Samuels, director of the Office of Civil Rights, and Jerry Menikoff, director of the Office for Human Research Protections.
In her letters, Blackburn said the Department of Health and Human Services maintains the right to impose civil money penalties on covered entities, such as Planned Parenthood, that fail to comply with the privacy rule.
In addition, Blackburn wrote, “both a covered entity that discloses, and any person who knowingly obtains, [protected health information] in violation of [HIPAA] can face criminal fines or imprisonment.”
Brain Bonuses
Evidence of the House panel’s allegations included StemExpress documents that feature compensation rates for tissue and blood procurement. Effective Jan. 1, 2013, StemExpress paid procurement technicians $10 per hour, plus what the company calls a tissue or blood bonus ranging anywhere from $10 to $75 per specimen.
“StemExpress paid the abortion clinic for each fetal tissue and each blood sample and then marked up the tissue four to six hundred percent for sale to the researcher,” Blackburn wrote.
In one case, in January 2012, StemExpress billed $5,175 to Yale University School of Medicine for seven brains priced at $715 each. The total included two charges of $85 for Fedex priority overnight shipping.
The $715 price per brain, Blackburn’s letter implies, would include the markup of 400 to 600 percent.
According to the StemExpress compensation policy, procurement technicians get a $35 bonus for procuring anywhere from one to 10 fetal brains in addition to their $10 hourly rate.
While transportation costs were included in the documents released by Blackburn’s panel, investigators are seeking to obtain accounting records from StemExpress to further clarify the price discrepancy between the procurement technician’s compensation rates and the total amount billed to research institutions such as Yale.
The Daily Signal sought comment from Yale via email, but has not received a response.
What Is Legal
The National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 prohibits any person or organization from profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. However, it is legal to provide payment and accept payment to cover reasonable costs for “transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.”
Lawmakers and pro-life activists raised questions about whether abortion clinics and middleman procurement companies such as StemExpress profit from transactions involving organs, body parts, and other tissue from aborted babies after the Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover videos last year.
The hidden-camera videos, produced by the center’s David Daleiden, showed officials at Planned Parenthood affiliates discussing the buying and selling of baby body parts and other tissue, raising questions about whether abortion clinics and middlemen companies are profiting off these transactions.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America consistently has denied any wrongdoing and was cleared in multiple state investigations so far. In October, after facing questions about its tissue donation practices, Planned Parenthood announced it no longer would accept any reimbursement. (For more from the author of “StemExpress Sold Baby Body Parts for 4 to 6 Times Cost, House Probe Alleges” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/baby-feet-833375_960_720-1.jpg640960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-06 03:06:582016-06-06 03:06:58StemExpress Sold Baby Body Parts for 4 to 6 Times Cost, House Probe Alleges
It’s just been revealed that quick thinking by a UCLA professor during the shooting potentially saved more lives during the recent tragedy.
Ajit Mal is an engineering professor at UCLA. On Wednesday, he was prepping for his 10 a.m. engineering class when gunshots erupted down the hall.
Mal met his colleague, Christopher Lynch, in the hallway outside of his office.
“What was that?” Mal asked.
“That’s a gunshot,” Lynch said.
The popping noise they heard sounded like it came from a fellow professor’s room. William Klug worked right down the hall from both Mal and Lynch.
Lynch knew Klug well, and he knew that his friend would probably not be taking his own life. Lynch assumed the worst and figured that a gunman was inside terrorizing the place.
Lynch acted quickly, not knowing much about the situation. He went to Klug’s office and held the door shut while he yelled for other people to leave the building.
“If he had stepped out,” Lynch said, “we’d all be in trouble.”
Eventually he heard a third shot and assumed that the killer had taken his own life. Soon police arrived and cleared out the remaining civilians. Lynch handed them the key to Klug’s office and left — not wanting to peek inside and see what happened.
The killer, Mainak Sarkar, was armed with two semi-automatic pistols with backup magazines. Sarkar was a formal doctoral student at UCLA.
His apparent motive for killing had to do with a computer code that he accused Klug of stealing. Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck said it definitely looked as though Sarkar was “certainly prepared to engage multiple victims.”
Mal praised Lynch’s actions. “If he (Sarkar) had come out with a loaded gun, I don’t think I’d be alive,” Mal said. “Chris Lynch’s presence of mind and quick action saved us.” (For more from the author of “New Details Reveal UCLA Shooting Could Have Been Much Worse” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Janss_Steps_Royce_Hall_in_background_UCLA.jpg13821842Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-05 22:33:522016-06-05 22:33:52New Details Reveal UCLA Shooting Could Have Been Much Worse
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-103.jpg10801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-04 01:18:272016-06-04 01:18:27Pack It up, #WearOrange Gun Grabbers. You Can All Go Home After This EPIC Tweet
A student-led Christian group filed a lawsuit against North Carolina State University for allegedly restricting their First Amendment rights by demanding they obtain a speech permit.
The federal court hearing took place Thursday where Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, represented Grace Christian Life, a non-denominational Christian church that organizes services and fellowship activities for students at North Carolina State University. ADF is a conservative legal organization that represents people who claim their religious liberty has been infringed upon.
Hannalee Alrutz, president of Grace Christian Life and a senior at North Carolina State University, told The Daily Signal, “I have witnessed other student groups on campus engaging in conversation freely and not being stopped.”
“Because college campuses are a marketplace of ideas, every student from every belief system and standing should have the right to freely express their ideas,” Alrutz said. “The policy kills our speech. It puts a lot of fear in us so that when we desire to talk to somebody on campus, like a fellow student, there is always, in the back of our mind, a worry that we may be stopped or punished because the policy allows for that.”
Like many groups and clubs across college campuses nationwide, Grace Christian Life used the student union as a place to tell their peers about Grace Christian Life’s mission and to “invite them to attend Grace Christian Life events.”
In order to make students aware of their activities, Grace Christian Life needed to apply for a permit to set up a table and were told that “without a permit, they must stop approaching other students in the Talley Student Union to engage in religious discussions with them,” according to a Wednesday press release by ADF.
“The only permit required for free speech on a public university campus is the First Amendment,” Langhofer said in a statement, adding that the permits are “unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech of students.”
Despite what they see as the questionable legality of the university’s permit policy, Grace Christian Life members applied for and obtained a permit that allowed them to “speak with other students from behind the table or anywhere in the room.”
When the students stepped out from behind their designated table, a member of the Student Involvement Office made them return to their permitted area.
Controversy ensued when Student Involvement members failed to confront other student groups engaging in conversation and “handing out literature either without a permit or outside of the area reserved by their table permit.” This occurred “sometimes in full view of the same officials that stopped Grace Christian Life from doing the same,” according to ADF’s press release.
North Carolina State University said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that “NC State believes this lawsuit is both frivolous and without merit. The implication that an organization has been treated differently on our campus because it is a religious group is false.”
In response to the accusation that the university’s speech permit policy was “selectively” enforced among student groups, the university said:
Individuals are of course free to engage others in conversations about their faith on campus. That free speech right is protected by the U.S. Constitution, and NC State not only protects but also defends the right of free speech for this group and all groups committed to the open exchange of ideas regardless of viewpoint.
Following the hearing, Langhofer told The Daily Signal, “I believe that the court’s questions today made it very clear that [the judge] did not believe that the lawsuit was frivolous at all and that there were legitimate and appropriate constitutional concerns with the [university’s speech permit] policy.”
North Carolina State University has been granted until 1 p.m. Friday to respond to ADF’s proposed injunction, giving ADF until midnight to respond to any proposals made by the university. Langhofer told The Daily Signal that he expected a decision from the judge by Saturday.
“I am very pleased with the hearing,” Langhofer said. “The judge expressed grave concerns with the breadth of NC State’s policy. He questioned NC State’s policy at length about why the university felt the students need a permit to talk with one another in the student union.” (For more from the author of “Students Sue North Carolina State University for Regulating Religious Speech” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/College_of_Engineering_Building_II_North_Carolina_State_University_2013.jpg30615442Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-03 22:56:162016-06-03 22:56:16Students Sue North Carolina State University for Regulating Religious Speech
One local Trump supporter is being banned from wearing a signature Donald Trump hat to school after it began to draw tense conversations.
Logan Autry left Powers-Ginsburg Elementary School early on Thursday because school leaders said something he was wearing is causing a safety concern on campus– his red hat.
“The vice principal came up to me and told me to take my hat off because it brings negative attention from other students. And I said no a few times and then the principal told me again and I still said no and refused,” said Logan Autry.
For three days straight the third grader wore the hat to class. But each day, more and more classmates began confronting him at recess.
“I still want to keep my hat. It’s not the hat that draws attention, it’s just my personality that the other children do not like,” said Autry. (Read more from “9-Year-Old Banned From ‘Making America Great Again'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Trump_Hat.jpg768816Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-03 20:47:082016-06-04 02:48:379-Year-Old Banned From ‘Making America Great Again’
A Bronx man faces manslaughter charges after beating his wife’s would-be rapist to death.
According to reports, a 51 year old woman was hit over the head with a chair inside her Washington Avenue apartment at about 10:15pm Monday (May 30). The attacker, 43-year-old Earl Nash, illegally entered the building and forcibly removed her clothes. The woman fought him off and was able to dial her husband, 61-year-old Mamadou Diallo who was outside and rushed in.
Surveillance video shows Nash with no shirt on after the attack and Diallo getting off the elevator where his wife screamed “That’s him!” At this time, Diallo, a taxi driver, attacked Nash with a tire iron. Nash was taken to Lincoln Hospital in critical condition where he later died from his injuries. Hour before the attack Nash can be seen lurking in the hallways.
Diallo was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter, but he is expected to be released on his own recognizance. Diallo’s case will eventually go before a grand jury. (Read more from “Bronx Man Beats Wife’s Would-Be Rapist to Death, Faces Manslaughter” HERE)
Prince died of an accidental overdose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, autopsy results released Thursday show . . .
According to a one-page report released by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office, Prince administered the drug himself, but the date he took it was unknown. The office said it has completed its death investigation and had no further comment.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, 50 times more potent than heroin, that’s partly responsible for a recent surge in overdose deaths in some parts of the country. It also has legitimate medical uses. More than 700 fentanyl-related overdose deaths were reported to the Drug Enforcement Administration in late 2013 and 2014. (Read more from “Medical Examiner Reveals the Cause of Prince’s Death” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/1024px-Prince_at_Coachella.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-02 22:18:192016-06-03 02:29:52Medical Examiner Reveals the Cause of Prince’s Death
