FOX covers for Jeb Bush, scrubbing the debate transcript, removing videos

UPDATE and Correction 8/10/15 1:30PM: It’s come to my attention from helpful comments that there is at least one transcript officially available from TIME that includes the Planned Parenthood exchange with Gov. Jeb Bush. However, the first transcript put out by CBS (which attributes FOX News) does not contain the exchange and has not been updated. The exchange is included in the video, as of now, posted on the FOX website. It occurs at 1:13:33. I want to apologize for the sensationalized headline, but I still maintain that this is a story worth keeping an eye on.

Since the first Republican primary debate, Republicans and conservatives (and I suppose a few libertarians) have been complaining about the tough adversarial questions asked by the FOX News moderators. However, there is one question and one response you will no longer find. It’s been removed from the transcript and later broadcasts like it never happened and the videos posted after the debate taken down. If you were watching live, here is what you would have heard. The exchange starts with the question from Megyn Kelly.

Kelly: Governor Bush, let’s start with you. Many Republicans have been outraged recently by a series of videos on Planned Parenthood. You now say that you support ending federal funding for this organization. However, until late 2014, right before you started your campaign, you sat on the board of a Bloomberg charity that quite publicly gave tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, while you were a Director. How could you not know about these well-publicized donations [a few boos] and if you did know, how could you help a charity so openly committed to abortion rights?

Bush: I joined the Bloomberg foundation because of Mike Bloomberg’s shared commitment for meaningful education reform. That’s why I was on it. We never had a debate about the budget. It was presented and we approved it. Not item by item. Here’s my record. As governor of the state of Florida, I defunded Planned Parenthood. [applause] I created a culture of life in our state. We were the only state to appropriate money for crisis pregnancy centers. We expanded dramatically the number of adoptions out of our foster care system. We created — we did parental notification laws. We ended partial birth abortion. We did all of this. And we were the first state to do a “choose life” license plate. Now 29 states have done it and tens of millions of dollars have gone to create a culture where more people, more babies are adopted.

Kelly: But did you know?

Bush: [pause] No. I didn’t know…

You can read more of the exchange here thanks to the faithful eye of bloggers at emptywheel.net

UPDATE: We’ve found some clips of the exchange that have yet to be removed from Youtube thanks to a user over at RandPaulForums.com.

It appears that even the live feed (broadcasts usually run on some sort of delay) for some cable viewers may have been censored. This comment was made on the omission from another left leaning blog:

On my (Directv) feed, it picked up from commercial in the middle of this answer. I didn’t get to hear the question. They literally cut off the first minute of the exchange so it was never aired. I had just assumed some technical error at the time.

On the transcript released to the media, the above exchange has simply vanished. It is replaced by “(COMMERCIAL BREAK),” as you can see below in this screen shot:

This is a story that we will continue to monitor. If anyone can find a video clip or more information, please include it in the comments.

One more thing…I thought this was odd. Check out the content, or lack thereof, in this article written on the CBS News website. The article is entitled, “What candidates said about Planned Parenthood and abortion in the first GOP debate.” The writer, Reena Flores, will surely cover the exchange about Bush’s involvement–knowingly or not–with giving money to Planned Parenthood, right? Here’s what she writes:

Establishment favorite and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also touted his pro-life record, adding that he defunded Planned Parenthood while chief executive of Florida.

This appears to be true – The St. Petersburg Times reported 2003 that “Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida lost $124,000 last year from its family planning division. Bush diverted the funds to abstinence-only educational programs.”

And that’s it on ol’ Gov. Jeb. Now, I didn’t go to journalism school, but it seems to me that what really happened was a whole lot more interesting! In place of the awkward, “This appears to be true,” seems to be a great place to report that “However, Gov. Bush was challenged on why he sat as a director on a Bloomberg foundation that gave tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood. Gov. Bush responded that he wasn’t aware of these donations.”

When you are writing an article on one subject that was only covered for a number seconds by each candidate, wouldn’t you cover Jeb Bush’s involvement with a board that gave money to Planned Parenthood? Did someone ask the writer to edit her original draft?

It turns out that Jeb Bush resigned as director of that Bloomberg board in 2014, when he started organizing to run for the presidency. “He was compensated $37,100 for his service to the board.” Service that included not knowing anything about giving 50 million dollars to Planned Parenthood.

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Just a fun note on the history of Fox altering debate transcripts. This exchange with Ron Paul was removed from future broadcasts by FOX. In this case, I think FOX was shamed by Ron Paul’s response. I was actually standing outside the debate hall in South Carolina when this happened. A moment that will go down in history among us Paulbots!

UPDATE and Correction 8/10/15 1:30PM: It’s come to my attention from helpful comments that there is at least one transcript officially available from TIME that includes the Planned Parenthood exchange with Gov. Jeb Bush. However, the first transcript put out by CBS (which attributes FOX News) does not contain the exchange and has not been updated. The exchange is included in the video, as of now, posted on the FOX website. It occurs at 1:13:33. I want to apologize for the sensationalized headline, but I still maintain that this is a story worth keeping an eye on.