By Amanda Weber -

The Washington News Council’s Board of Directors will be holding a hearing on a formal written complaint from the Vitae Foundation against KUOW 94.9 FM concerning a story that aired April 13, 2011. It will be held on Saturday, March 31 from 9 am-noon, at the UW Department of Communication, Room 120. It is open to the public.

The hearing will address what has been deemed by the WNC and the Vitae Foundation as “serious questions of journalistic performance or ethics,” as they pertain to a story reported by then-intern and current KUOW freelance reporter Meghan Walker, a recent graduate of the Department.

In her report, Walker interviewed Kristen Glundberg–Prossor, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Seattle about YourOptions.com, a website owned by the Vitae Foundation. According to their website, the Vitae Foundation is a “non-profit, educational organization focused on using research-based messaging to educate the public about the value and sanctity of human life; restoring this value as a core belief in the American culture; and reducing the number of abortions.”

The organization owns the website which refers pregnant women to Care Net, a national chain that provides some pregnancy services. Walker’s story claims that advertisements for websites and organizations like YourOptions.com and Care Net are misleading because they aren’t clear about their pro-life agenda.

In the story, Glundberg–Prossor said, “We don’t believe in the same things. Planned Parenthood believes in all options to women and Care Net and limited–service pregnancy centers take that option off the table from the get–go.”

However, Debbie Stokes, the executive vice president of the Vitae Foundation, felt that Walker’s story didn’t accurately report the facts. After submitting the complaint to the WNC, she responded to Walker’s story on KUOW saying that the website YourOptions.com does, in fact, “talk about all the options, including abortion, on the website,” and they “do state on the website that we do not promote or refer for abortion.”

All of this comes amid the push from Planned Parenthood for state legislators to restrict all types of ads by limited–service pregnancy centers so that there will be transparency about what the centers actually provide. New York City passed a similar bill requiring those centers to advertise clearly about their services, but the pregnancy centers say that violated free speech rights and the ordinance was overturned.

The WNC received the Vitae Foundation’s formal written complaint on June 9, 2011, and the Council’s Board of Directors accepted it for processing with unanimous agreement after careful review. However, the Board takes no position on the merits of a complaint at the stage of acceptance.

Download a PDF collection here to read the basic complaint and initial correspondence between Vitae and KUOW.