Think and me

Last week a popular local radio show on NPR called Think had the president of Planned Parenthood on. Normally this show is thought provoking and rather balanced. The host asks piercing questions and is capable of encapsulating complex issues into a few immediately understandable sentences. So I was shocked when Cecile Richards was given numerous soft pitches. But wait! There's always the callers, right? Nope. There was the older woman wanting to remind other older women that they can get STDs, too. There was the family friend who knew the guest's mother. You get the idea. So, what does a listener do? This listener emailed in:

"Think" staff,

I was surprised by the tenor of your conversation with the head of
Planned Parenthood of America. As a dutiful listener to your show I
can only call this segment a "fluff piece" ill-befitting a program
that usually contains enlightened and well reasoned discourse. It
seemed to this listener that Ms. Boyd's primary goal was to spread the
good news of Planned Parenthood while also dispelling the negative
aspects of their work. Statements like the "necessity to terminate a
pregnancy" or the simple acceptance of the Planned Parenthood
perspective on responsible sexual activity either exposed a bias of
the interviewer or a simple desire to allow the guest to present her
side as she sees it. I can understand the concern that an angry
anti-Planned Parenthood "family planning" guest seated with Mrs.
Richards would turn into an overly heated debate, but that would give
into a caricature of the "anti-choice" position. Several intelligent
and well spoken speakers for the opposition could have been brought in
for a healthy discussion.

Will an opposing viewpoint be allowed to express itself in a future show?

Thanks,

Joseph

Today I received a response:

Greetings Joseph

I appreciate your comments and thank you for taking the time to write. I
would mention that Planned Parenthood does actually provide many health
services to women other than the termination of pregnancy, and that -
coupled with the opportunity to interview the national president - was
the reason we chose to cover this topic on the show.

I'm not sure we would invite a guest on to refute the idea that
providing health services to women is a good idea, or to express an
opinion that responsible sexual activity is undesirable. That said,
however, we are committed to a diversity of viewpoints from a diversity
of guests and we consider each and every topic suggestion.

Thanks again for writing and thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Jeff Whittington
Senior Producer, Think
Host, Anything You Ever Wanted to Know
KERA 90.1 / KERA 13
3000 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75201
214-740-5474
jwhittington@kera.org

Note the crafted phrasing there. It's not the murdering of innocent children that was worth talking about, but the access to prophylactics and pap smears. I also seem to be opposed to keeping women healthy and allowing them to have "responsible sex."
Among other things I disagree with what they call responsible and what they deem healthy activity. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.