Politics

MSNBC Host Goes After The Daily Caller, Fails Miserably [VIDEO]

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle took issue Tuesday with being called out for making false statements about Planned Parenthood on her show last week.

The Daily Caller reported this past Friday that Ruhle made incorrect statements about Planned Parenthood when debating defunding the group with Republican Florida Rep. Francis Rooney. (VIDEO: MSNBC Host Fudges Facts On Planned Parenthood)

On MSNBC’s “Velshi & Ruhle” Tuesday, Ruhle had a fit about the article and went on a defensive rampage.

“There were some out there who said that when I challenged [Rooney] I was a liar and I was fudging the truth,” she said angrily. “I beg of you, please check out this graphic.”

Ruhle pointed to a a graphic showing increases and decreases of various non-abortion services of Planned Parenthood.

“So for those of you out there who said I was fudging it, here’s another ‘f’ to send you…this ‘f’ is a fact!” she exclaimed.

WATCH:

Challenge accepted, Stephanie. Let’s run through the facts.

Rep. Rooney argued on MSNBC Friday that the non-abortion activities of Planned Parenthood are “down precipitously.” While precipitously may be a bit hyperbolic, Planned Parenthood’s reports between 2006 and 2016 show that their non-abortion activities did fall by 681,070 services, or 3.6 percent.

Even if you consider non-abortion activities from just their 2014-15 report to their 2015-16 report, there is a slight increase of only 0.19 percent — hardly the “huge increase” Ruhle suggested on Friday.

However, Ruhle didn’t even suggest that all non-abortion activities experienced a “huge increase.” Rather, she only cited “breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, and actually the amount of men that are going to Planned Parenthood to get screenings.”

Ruhle’s own infographic from her rebuttal indicated that total cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood are down 2 percent from last year.

As TheDC indicated in the initial article calling out Ruhle, breast exams performed by Planned Parenthood fell by more than 42,000 and its colposcopies fell by more than 2,000. Overall cancer screenings decreased by nearly 17,000.

While claiming that Planned Parenthood experienced “huge increases” in cancer screenings, Ruhle also stated they had stagnated in terms of abortion. However, abortions went up 1 percent last year and went up 10.7 percent over the past ten years. Those should both be considered “huge increases” given Ruhle’s own characterization of a 2 percent decline on cancer screenings and a 0.19 percent increase on non-abortion services as “huge increases,” no?

So basically any way you slice it, Ruhle was still wrong on Friday.

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