Youtube Censors PRI Investigative Video

source

By Colin Mason
7/2/2008

Population Research Institute (www.pop.org)

Front Royal, VA, 07/02/08—YouTube.com, in what the Population Research Institute (PRI) is calling a case of blatant censorship, has removed a video from its website for the sole reason that it criticizes a pro-abortion journalist.

The video, edited and posted by the Catholic News Agency, shows PRI affiliate Carlos Polo in conversation with pro-abortion activist Eve Reinhardt. Reinhardt had obtained an interview with Polo by assuring him that she was impartial and balanced. Polo, however, discovered that she was affiliated very closely with a hard-left, pro-abortion documentary project, entitled The Decency Gap. Polo brought his own cameraman to the interview and confronted Reinhardt, accusing her of deliberately misleading him.

Shortly after this video was posted, the website for The Decency Gap vanished, and the video was taken down by YouTube. YouTube cited vague “terms of use violations” as their reason for censoring the video.

“As the editor of a news agency that strives to provide people around the world the truth about the Catholic Church and issues of concern to Catholics, I find it frustrating that The Decency Gap project is able to convince YouTube to remove a factual video without any explanation,” David Uebbing, executive editor of the Catholic News Agency told PRI.

“None of the information provided in the video has been contradicted by The Decency Gap,” he continued. “Additionally, the project’s links to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Peruvian pro-abortion association PROMSEX have not been disproven.”

According to Uebbing, censorship of this kind is nothing new on YouTube. He points to the example of a video posted by American Life League, which was taken down for supposedly “inappropriate content.” This video criticized clips from two online Planned Parenthood ads. But while YouTube removed ALL’s video, it left the original Planned Parenthood ads online.

Catholic News Agency has since reposted the video, labeling it “The Decency Gap / Eve Reinhardt Censored Version,” as well as posting a version on Google Video as well. The video can be found here.

"Stop censoring people with whom you disagree," PRI President Steve Mosher told YouTube. "This is America, not the People's Republic of China."

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The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro-natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including A Mother's Ordeal.

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PRI is a 501(c)(3) educational organization. We work to reverse the trends brought about by the myth of overpopulation. Our growing, global network of pro-life groups spans over 30 countries. To date, we have successfully eliminated $750 million in U.S. tax dollars to population control groups or programs.

Put A Condom On Greed - 2nd of 2 parts

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

2nd of 2 parts

continued from yesterday....

Pro choice advocates who appear so tough against the Church's stand on population control claim so much concern for the quality of life of poor families with many children but so muted and meek against the purveyors of corruption which caused poverty in the first place and continues to deepen the suffering of the poor today. Their deafening silence against the agents of corruption make their claim of concern for the poor almost comical.

I do not know whether to laugh or to cry at the hypocrisy being foisted on us. They are all leaders of Filipinos, officers of the State, shepherds of the Church. How can they be so blind, or so deceptive? How can they be less than courageous, less than honest, even when they each try to call our attention and ask for our support for their respective positions? Why can they not break an ugly pattern of centuries, confess to their victims how their corruption brought a rich land and a gifted people to their knees to wallow in poverty?

The poor are not animals in a breeding program, but they end up as such because they are treated as though they are. Their choices, pro or anti, are uninformed because of their level of awareness and understanding. Worse, though, is their level of freedom - which is just slightly better than the carabaos being tested in breding programs. Carabaos, at least, are ensured that their masters will look for the land, the food and the bath they need.

On the other hand, the poor are driven to where they cannot be seen, heard or smelled. The poor are sacrificed to the altar calamities which lessen their numbers more effectively in proportion versus natural family planning of artificial contraceptives. Those who want to engage in population control should just hope that more disasters like floods, typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, fire, sinking ships, and bloody conflicts visit the Philippines.

This is a time for courage, not debate. This is a time when the poor must be attended to and relieved of their fears and hunger. This is a time when conflict among the rich and powerful, including the Catholic Church, directly hurts the poor in their most vulnerable moment. We gripe about the effects of fuel and rice prices, but the poor actually cringe from hunger and fear at a deeper level.

Let us not quibble about what they do in bed; rather, let us give them a bedroom. Let us not quibble about contraceptives or family planning methods to lessen their number of children, rather, let us put condoms over greed and the exploitation of the more powerful and wealthy. And for us who are neither the poorest of the poor or powerful like the Congress or the Church, let us overcome our own reluctance, our attachment to comfort, cross over to the wrong side of the fence, embrace the poor as our own brothers and sisters, and walk with them to freedom and well-being. ***

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GLIMPSES
"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves."

Put A Condom On Greed - 1st of 2 parts

GLIMPSES

Jose Ma. Montelibano

1st of 2 parts

I cannot believe how former partners in the exploitation of land and people can suddenly turn on each other over reproductive and population control issues but deftly avoid their common guilt. I cannot believe how bishops and politicians can touch on how the poor should behave in their reproductive practices but veer away on the undisputed cause of poverty.

In previous articles, I have twitted the protagonists on the pro-life versus pro-choice controversy that they skirmish on the less essentials in order to distract themselves, and the people, from the most essential. One points to how the bigger number of children aggravate the poverty situation and the hardship of the poor families affected. The other points to fundamental religious tenets about the primacy of life, including the rights of the unborn. Both have valid points, but both remain afraid to do battle against the single biggest cause for what pro choice and pro life condemn.

Population does not cause poverty. A bigger family size can aggravate the suffering of poor families, but poverty also causes a bigger family size. The justification of the loudest pro choice advocates in Congress, and in legislative bodies of towns and cities, in calling for all types of birth control methods, products and devices is poverty. Yet, they are strangely quiet on the only proven cause for the ugliness and massiveness of poverty in the Philippines - corruption.

The Church suddenly finds the courage to challenge some representatives of the States. It called for Catholics to show their support for the pro life stance in a prayer rally which generated 10 -12 thousand instead of 1 - 2 million. And among the embarrassing number of Catholics who joined the pro life gatheri8ng in the University of Santo Tomas, the poor were not present, not even when they were the ones the Church tried to protect the most from the evil of artificial birth control. Perhaps, the poor were trying to tell the Church that they wanted to be protected from greed and exploitation, not condoms.

Just earlier this year, the Church finally articulated what ordinary Catholics and Filipino citizens have long been talking about - the cancer of corruption. After doing so, however, the newfound courage quickly retreated and could not lead the victims of corruption, or the whole Christendom of the Philippines, to an effective initiative against the most public of agents of corruption. Instead, it chose to hide behind the principle of separation of Church and State to wash its hands from having to be the righteous David to the corrupt Goliath. But condoms managed to make the same religious hierarchy shriek in dismay and anger, then call on catholics to do the same.

Who is right - pro life or pro choice? It is difficult to assess as advocates of both have shrank in credibility. Pro life Catholics have tolerated, maybe even participated, in corruption. Corruption has caused our poverty, and poverty has demeaned life that is and not just life that is yet to be. When pro life advocates led by the Church in the Philippines are seen as inutile or unconcerned in the active protection of the poor, their words or claim to being pro life rings hollow, even hypocritical. And because they are not that credible, even the message they give lack credibility.

to be continued tomorrow.......
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GLIMPSES

"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves."