Attorney General Phill Kline and Bill O'Riley in trouble because of abortion records

[Demontestament]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/06/abortion.records.ap/index.html

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- Two abortion clinics asked the state's highest court Monday to investigate Attorney General Phill Kline and Fox television's Bill O'Reilly over O'Reilly's statements that he had information from Kansas abortion records.

A Kline spokeswoman called the move "a political ploy."

The clinics' attorneys want the Kansas Supreme Court to seize records that Kline, an outspoken abortion opponent, obtained on 90 of the clinics' patients.

Kline received edited versions of the records from a district judge on October 24 after arguing he wanted to review the records for evidence of possible crimes including rape and illegal abortions.

The attorneys asked the court to appoint a special prosecutor to determine if O'Reilly's information came from the records turned over to Kline.

O'Reilly said Friday on his show "The O'Reilly Factor" that an inside source gave him information that a doctor at one of the clinics, George Tiller, had performed late-term abortions because patients were depressed. O'Reilly deemed it "executing babies."

Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones has said the attorney general doesn't know how O'Reilly obtained the information.

David Tabacoff, executive producer of "The O'Reilly Factor," issued a statement saying, "We stand by our story."

The two clinics requesting the investigation are Tiller's Wichita clinic and a Planned Parenthood-run clinic in Overland Park. Tiller, one of the few U.S. doctors to perform late-term abortions, has been targeted by protesters for years, his clinic was bombed in 1985 and he was shot by a protester in 1993.

The clinics' request for an investigation was the second in a week targeting the attorney general.

On Wednesday, former Attorney General Bob Stephan, a Republican like Kline, asked the state Governmental Ethics Commission to examine Kline's fundraising and activities involving churches. Kline is running for a second term


Now it wouldn't supprise me one bit if O'Riley did infact get the records from the Attorney General. Why you ask, simple really. Bill O'Riley is no stranger when it comes to using underhanded and most of the time illegal tatics to get information he then can twist to fit his bible thumping theories that anybody who doesn't believe was he believes is stupid and evil.

[Jabrwock]

O'Reilly's response?

It's all a liberal conspiracy to hide teh truth!

[nightwng2000]

The article says the edited versions of the records were obtained for investigation purposes. I wonder how the investigations are going.

After all, I can see this as a possibility as well:

Clinic is forced to turn over records to AG for investigation.

Clinic doesn't want the records investigated.

Someone political seeks out media personality, asks to be an "unnamed source" and let's slip some fact that may or may not be contained in the records. Maybe some "throw away" info that isn't as important as other info in the rcords.

Media personaility reports claim by "unnamed source".

Clinics now have apparent justifiable reason to make accusation against AG in an attempt to overshadow and perhaps close down any investigation into the records.

It's certainly as probable as saying the AG obtained the records and released some of the information to the media.

[Jabrwock]

O'Reilly knows damn well who the "anonymous" source is. If it was just some hobo with a conspiracy theory, it wouldn't have gotten mentioned. To avoid pulling a CBS, they would have checked their source for credibility.

So I doubt the theory that it's a conspiracy by the clinic to discredit the AG's office. More likely it was someone who wanted to make sure the clinic was exposed to the public, and was likely pissed at the publication ban. I don't doubt the clinic is taking full advantage of the source's stupidity to get their case thrown out, but I doubt they were the ones who released the info.

[KN]

Onoes Zombie Fetus Lives!

[nightwng2000]

O'Reilly knows damn well who the "anonymous" source is. If it was just some hobo with a conspiracy theory, it wouldn't have gotten mentioned. To avoid pulling a CBS, they would have checked their source for credibility.

So I doubt the theory that it's a conspiracy by the clinic to discredit the AG's office. More likely it was someone who wanted to make sure the clinic was exposed to the public, and was likely pissed at the publication ban. I don't doubt the clinic is taking full advantage of the source's stupidity to get their case thrown out, but I doubt they were the ones who released the info.

It doesn't have to be a hobo. It's an "unnamed source", not an "anonymous source". It could easily be a less recognized doctor, nurse, or even a patient (or just someone that is claiming to be a patient).

[Jabrwock]

It doesn't have to be a hobo. It's an "unnamed source", not an "anonymous source". It could easily be a less recognized doctor, nurse, or even a patient (or just someone that is claiming to be a patient).
By "unnamed", O'Reilly is merely protecting the identity of the source. Whoever wrote the story knows who the source is, they're just using "unnamed" to protect them from repercussions.

Standard news procedure. Politicians' aid talks to you about closed talks that weren't supposed to be public, story says "unnamed source says..." to prevent the guy from getting arrested, thereby losing a valuable source of insider info.

Fox knows better than to pull a CBS 60 Minutes. They'll have done a quick backgrounder check to verify the source of the info. Because if they were implicated in a plot to derail an investigation, they'd be in a world of trouble. That and they'd rather make sure the clinic gets prosecuted, rather than absolved. This is O'Reilly after all.

[Demontestament]

It doesn't have to be a hobo. It's an "unnamed source", not an "anonymous source". It could easily be a less recognized doctor, nurse, or even a patient (or just someone that is claiming to be a patient).

If it were a Doctor, nurse or even a Patient O'Riley would of outed their name in a heart beat. He is strongly opposed to abortion and would do anything in his power to make somebody who does these procedures or has had one down even if they came foward with the information look like a monster who hates the bible. The only reason why he would not reveal the info is to save the ass of someone who is like him. In his eyes there are two kinds of people, Good Honest people(Christians, Bible Thumpers, people like him) and scum who need to die(Everybody else)

[Jabrwock]

If it were a Doctor, nurse or even a Patient O'Riley would of outed their name in a heart beat. He is strongly opposed to abortion and would do anything in his power to make somebody who does these procedures or has had one down even if they came foward with the information look like a monster who hates the bible. The only reason why he would not reveal the info is to save the ass of someone who is like him. In his eyes there are two kinds of people, Good Honest people(Christians, Bible Thumpers, people like him) and scum who need to die(Everybody else)
That too. O'Reilly would have hung them out to dry if it was someone from the clinic... because it would get them in even more trouble...

[nightwng2000]

If it were a Doctor, nurse or even a Patient O'Riley would of outed their name in a heart beat. He is strongly opposed to abortion and would do anything in his power to make somebody who does these procedures or has had one down even if they came foward with the information look like a monster who hates the bible. The only reason why he would not reveal the info is to save the ass of someone who is like him. In his eyes there are two kinds of people, Good Honest people(Christians, Bible Thumpers, people like him) and scum who need to die(Everybody else)

Even so, there is still the possibility it could be someone other than the AG and their people. Maybe, maybe not. Still, that doesn't eliminate the clinics as being potentially involved in an attempt to cover up some illegal act.

I did, however, fail to ask if late term abortions were illegal in PA. I noticed that the AG was claiming to want to investigate "illegal abortions" and since the story the show broke was about a doctor performing late term abortions, I had to wonder if that was what the investigation was about or if it was just propaganda used to cover up what the investigation may have been about (and was failing to prove).

Truth is, it could just as easily be that the AG started an investigation, for whatever reason, found out pretty quick that the investigation wasn't panning out, and broke a story to cover up the failure of the investigation. Of course, either that idea was a stupid one as someone should have expected the clinics' response or it was a tactical strategy that the clinics complain, thereby sparking arguments over politics and further overshadowing the investigation failure.

Sounds like a complex strategy, but if I can think of it, it isn't so complex. I can beat a Commodore 64 at Level 0 chess, but anything over that and I'm screwed. So I don't do overly complex consipiracies. :)

[nightwng2000]

That too. O'Reilly would have hung them out to dry if it was someone from the clinic... because it would get them in even more trouble...

I rate him as a louder version of Rush Limbaugh. Actually, I'd rather watch Rush just for a laugh. O'Reilly ticks one off with his ignorance, like he-who-shall-not-be-named. But Rush is just plain off his gourd.

[Tollwutig]

Truth is, it could just as easily be that the AG started an investigation, for whatever reason, found out pretty quick that the investigation wasn't panning out, and broke a story to cover up the failure of the investigation.

I think this is the likely scenario. After getting the records the AG's office couldn't find anything, so the information got leaked to O'Reilly just in time for re-election so the AG could say he is seriously investigating these "baby executions". Given O'Reilly's record he'd be all to happy to hold on to the story in just the right time. They were probably hoping that the Clinics wouldn't be watching the O'Reilly Factor and would miss the story or wouldn't act before Nov 7th.