Bob Unruh is a good corporate lackey, doing his part for WorldNetDaily’s ill-fated decision to relitigate Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remarks as a promotion for his WND-published book. His July 15 WND article on Akin’s interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly is a thinly disguised PR piece:
Eighteen months ago, then-Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin made an admittedly awkward description of rape, was abandoned by his own party and eventually lost to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
[…]
Monday night, on Megyn Kelly’s “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel, he broke his silence and charged that members of both parties were eager to make sure a true Reagan conservative wasn’t in Congress and asserted Democrats imposed a double standard.
He pointed out to Kelly that the Democrats own convention speaker, Bill Clinton, had a long history of facing claims of assault from women.
His own party’s leaders, he said, displayed arrogance, using his plight to argue social conservatives of his kind couldn’t get elected.Akin clarified for Kelly that there are stress factors that can affect whether a victim gets pregnant, and he said that by “legitimate rape” he meant a “legitimate rape claim.”
And that’s all Unruh has to say about Akin’s discussion with Kelly about his previous remarks — which conveniently leaves out all the parts where Kelly challenged Akin’s narrative. More honest reporting of the Akin-Kelly interview took place at TPM:
Fox News host Megyn Kelly took failed Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin to task Monday night for his infamous claim that the female body could terminate a pregnancy in a case of “legitimate rape.”
Akin appeared on “The Kelly File” to promote his new book, “Firing Back,” in which he defends his original remarks on the grounds that stress can decrease fertility. Kelly challenged that defense, arguing there is no conclusive evidence tying the two together.
“But the thing that got people so upset was that you seemed to be putting the onus on rape victims, saying if yours was a legitimate rape, if you actually were raped, then your body will shut down the pregnancy,” Kelly said. “And if your body doesn’t shut down the pregnancy, then you are not the victim of rape.”
“I think you’re putting words in my mouth, I didn’t say that,” Akin responded.
“I’m just saying this is what people heard,” Kelly said.
“I think that’s what they heard, and that’s why we did the apology,” Akin said.
“See I get that, that’s why you did the apology, but you seem to be dialing it back now,” Kelly pressed.
Akin later said that he never meant to diminish women or the seriousness of rape as a crime in his comments.
“But you now acknowledge that a woman who is legitimately the victim of rape does not have a medical way of getting rid of — an emotional way of getting rid of the pregnancy,” Kelly said.
“No, I never believed that,” Akin said. “That wasn’t what I was trying to say, or I don’t think I did say that. But people perceived that, and that’s why we did the apology.”
Unruh’s article does include the video of the Akin-Kelly interview, so it’s clear he had access to the full interview. He simply chose to not accurately report what was said.