Just (Ignore) the Facts, Ma'am: Jill Stanek to Write for Ultra-Right Outlets

In further evidence of the erosion of truth and fact in conservative journalism, Media Matters for America reports that two ultra-right websites, Tea Party enthusiast Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism and the Media Research Center's NewsBusters have recently added anti-choice--and anti-fact--activist Jill Stanek as a contributing blogger.

Stanek, notes Media Matters, "has a history of inflammatory and dubious claims; in her inaugural NewsBusters post, however, she admits that she's "not a student of" media analysis."

Stanek's views on most things having to do with women's essential human rights are likely well-known to our regular readers, as is her incendiary and dangerous targeting of physicians who provide abortions. Soon after the murder of Dr. George Tiller, for example, at a time of increasing violence against providers nationwide, Stanek published photos of the clinic of Dr. Leroy Carhart on her website, while even more openly radical groups were calling for violence against him.

But for those who'd like the full picture, Media Matters points out the following on Stanek:

Stanek's statements have undermined her credibility. In August 2008, Media Matters for America detailed Stanek's numerous inflammatory statements, such as her suggestion that domestic violence is acceptable against women who have abortions, her support of billboards in Tanzania with the words "Faithful Condom User" next to a picture of a large skeleton, and her citation of a report that "aborted fetuses are much sought after delicacies" in China to which she added, "I think this stuff is happening."

Stanek's claims about abandoned fetuses not substantiated by state investigation. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Stanek was presented as a former nurse who claimed that babies that were born despite attempted abortions were abandoned without treatment in the Illinois hospital where she worked, including in a soiled utility room. However, the Illinois Department of Public Health reportedly said that the alleged conduct, if proved, would have constituted "violations of existing law" but that it could not substantiate the allegation.

Stanek has continued to make inflammatory and misleading claims:

• Stanek: America "elected a barbarian as president." In a November 6, 2008, WorldNetDaily column, Stanek responded to the election of Barack Obama as president by stating that "we are fooling ourselves if we think the United States is still a Christian nation. Its people just elected a barbarian as president."

• Stanek: Obama election a sign God is "finally turning America over to judgment." In a November 12, 2008, WND column, Stanek wrote that she "could only see impending doom" following Obama's election, adding:

There is no way God would have allowed Barack Obama to become president were He not finally turning America over to judgment, to whatever great or lesser extent that will be.

I sat in my mother's church and was surprised to feel anger when the worship leader smiled and sang the same songs as ever, as if life hadn't drastically changed the week before, as if the Church itself wasn't indicted by Obama's election.

• Stanek lamented that Tiller's killer wasn't allowed to mount "necessity" defense. In a February 3 column, Stanek stated that while she had "a problem with Scott Roeder murdering" abortion doctor George Tiller, she also stated that Roeder was not allowed to mount a "necessity" defense, based on Roeder's "honest belief that circumstances existed that justify deadly force," because it is "is anathema to both pro-aborts and the U.S. legal system thanks to abortion," adding, "Clearly Roeder had a problem with Tiller's continued avoidance of justice."

• Stanek's stance criticized by fellow anti-abortion activist as "a license to kill." In a February 8 WND column, Gregg Cunningham, executive director of the anti-abortion Center For Bio-Ethical Reform, responded to Stanek's column:

Regarding the murder of abortionist George Tiller, she argues essentially that Scott Roeder's jury should have been allowed to find that stalking, ambushing and blowing out the doctor's brains wasn't murder because George Tiller was an abortionist. Jill emphasizes that she is personally opposed to vigilante assassinations. She says that she might not have voted to reduce Scott Roeder's offense to manslaughter had she been given that option as his juror. But she then asserts that jurors should be permitted to consider the horror of abortion as a mitigating circumstance when deciding the fates of those who kill abortionists. This chilling, "eye-for-an-eye" ethic is difficult to distinguish from the barbaric apologetic used by the "Army of God" anarchists who cheer on sociopaths such as Scott Roeder. It is a license to kill.

• Stanek promoted link between abortion and breast cancer, despite evidence to the contrary. In a March 12, 2009, blog post on her personal website, Stanek referenced "the obvious and proven link between abortion and breast cancer." In fact, the National Cancer Institute held a 2003 workshop featuring "over 100 of the world's leading experts who study pregnancy and breast cancer risk," which "concluded that having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman's subsequent risk of developing breast cancer." NCI has maintained its stance that "the evidence overall still does not support early termination of pregnancy as a cause of breast cancer."

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson