US

Girl Scouts to stop linking to Media Matters

Vince Coglianese Editorial Director
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In a statement to The Daily Caller, Girl Scouts of the USA confirmed on Wednesday that its literature will no longer refer scouts to Media Matters For America as a source of information to balance bias in news reporting.

“Girl Scouts constantly reviews our materials based on feedback and suggestions we receive from our members and we update our materials on a regular basis,” said the statement. “As a result of this process, upcoming reprints of journeys materials will not include links to Media Matters.”

The book in question, titled “MEdia,” currently advises Girl Scouts that “Media Matters for America (http://mediamatters.org) gets the word out about media misinformation.”

The book’s stated purpose is to inform scouts about the perils of passive media consumption. According to The Blaze, whose coverage exposed the book’s contents, it was published originally in 2010 for distribution to girls in the sixth through eighth grades.

Media Matters, an organization best known for its devotion to attacking the Fox News Channel, was founded in 2004 and says it is “dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”

The revelation that the Girl Scouts encouraged young members to use online resources like the Media Matters website to get to the bottom of news stories is just the latest in a pattern of liberal lurches by the organization otherwise identified with those scrumptious Thin Mints cookies.

In 1993, the Girl Scouts made the mention of “God” optional for girls reciting the Girl Scout Pledge. The move was met with criticism from traditional religious and family organizations.

Pro-life groups lit into the Girl Scouts in the early 2000s as its educational connection with Planned Parenthood surfaced.

In 2004 Kathy Cloninger, then Girl Scouts of the USA’s CEO, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to defend that relationship.

“We do, across the country, tackle the issues of human sexuality and body image — all of the things that girls are facing,” explained Cloninger, “and we partner with many organizations. We have relationships with our church communities, YWCA’s, and with Planned Parenthood organizations across the country to bring information-based sex education programs to girls.”

Girl Scouts of the USA would not respond to further requests for comment from TheDC.

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