If it wasn't clear before, it should be clear now: Moloch worship is California's State Religion. Moloch was the ancient Caananite god of child sacrifice who has become the de facto patron of Planned Parenthood and the nation's Democratic Party.

California, a single-party state, has instituted a series of laws and used the power of the government to do whatever it takes to institutionalize abortion as the official state sacrament. No opposition will be tolerated. Dissent will be silenced. Defiance will be prosecuted.

Striking at the abortion god

Last year, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, aka The Center for Medical Progress, did some undercover journalism that no one in the mainstream media would ever dare to commit; they exposed the nation's largest abortion provider's practice of selling the body parts of aborted fetuses for profit, in violation of federal law.

In the videos, Planned Parenthood representatives described changing the abortion procedures not based upon what was best for the health of the woman, but rather to maximize the potential income they could get from the sale of specific fetal organs and body parts.

Planned Parenthood officials describe wanting to get as much money as possible from the sale of body parts to researchers, despite the fact that law allows only for the recouping of costs incurred, profits are illegal.

The media response was predictable. Journalists rushed to defend Planned Parenthood, claiming that the videos were doctored, "heavily edited," dishonest, and debunked, despite the fact that Daleiden also published the complete, unedited videos online.

Criminalizing journalism

The undercover videos followed a long tradition of journalistic muckraking dating from Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," to the entire oeuvre of CBS' "60 Minutes."

The government reacted to Sinclair's journalism with legislation creating the Food and Drug Administration and sending inspectors to meat-packing plants in the Midwest. In response to Daleiden's journalism, a district attorney in Texas went after Daleiden for using fake IDs in his effort to ferret out Planned Parenthood's wrongdoing. The charges were later thrown out, and the Planned Parenthood-allied District Attorney lost his bid for re-election.

And Tuesday, California's Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden and Merritt for violating a state law that makes it illegal to record or eavesdrop on a private conversation. Over at the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro makes a compelling case that the law doesn't apply because all of the recordings were made in public places, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

Babies vs. Chickens

The zeal with which Democrats have gone after the the Center for Medical Progress' undercover journalism doesn't extend to other sorts of exposés of illegal and unethical corporate behavior.

Groups like Mercy for Animals and Compassion Over Killing have gone undercover at California food processors in recent years and released videos showing animal cruelty and other, at best, unethical business practices. Yet the only criminal investigations these animal rights muckrakers have spurred is of their corporate targets.

California's district attorneys have not sought indictments or charges against the animal rights groups themselves.

Satire site The Babylon Bee hilariously ripped in to Becerra with a brief story assuring activists that "Undercover Videos Exposing Animal Cruelty Still OK, California AG Clarifies."

Journalists take sides

As the CMP videos trickled out in 2015, shocking people with consciences—not Democrats or journalists, Planned Parenthood supporters started alleging that the videos were "heavily edited" and that they distorted what was really said. The CMP had also released the unedited footage, and a forensic analysis funded by the Alliance Defending Freedom showed "no evidence of manipulation or editing."

Even Planned Parenthood's own forensic analysis concedes that "analysts found no evidence that CMP inserted dialogue not spoken by Planned Parenthood staff." But, predictably, goes on to allege that edits made to the videos distort Planned Parenthood staffers' statements. How exactly they can no that without video or testimony from the staffers to the correct "context" the statements were made in is left up to the reader to decide. Predictably, the mainstream media takes Planned Parenthood's word as gospel—something they'd be unlikely to do for nearly any other corporate entity in America.

As Tuesday's indictments were announced, ABC and CBS reported the story with spin reminiscent of Baghdad Bob.

From the beginning, CMP claimed its project documented Planned Parenthood’s “sale of baby body parts.” But, during their morning news shows Wednesday, ABC and CBS reversed that argument. Instead, anchors said, the CMP videos “claim to show [Daleiden and Merritt’s] attempt to buy fetal tissue” and that they “videotaped themselves trying to buy human material.”

In other words – the networks’ words – the videos showed CMP representatives trying to purchase aborted baby parts (or "human material") instead of trying to expose Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts.

The only principled left-wing journalist in the world

Mother Jones magazine's Kevin Drum is the only principled left-wing journalist in the world. After the standard ritualistic two-minutes hate accusing Daleiden and Merritt of being unprincipled liars (but curiously never sued by Planned Parenthood under our libel laws—and actual malice would be easy to prove, right?), Drum recognizes that someday it might be his ox being gored.

I imagine that if this were a couple of liberal activists secretly recording meetings with anti-immigration groups, Attorney General Xavier Becerra wouldn't so eager to go after them.

Needless to say, I Am Not A Lawyer, and there might be a good case that they broke California law. If they did, though, so much the worse for California law.

Every other journalist and First Amendment defender has at best been silent, at worst, they've encouraged the criminalization of journalism they don't like.

 The state religion

California has been going down this path for several years. The state's Orwellian-named "FACT Act" forces crisis pregnancy centers to make sure people who come to them are told where they can get an abortion. While other laws like this that compel speech have been struck down, the Ninth Circus has said that this is legal, because abortion.

The State of California also requires all health plans in the state—including those supplied by churches or religious employers like Catholic universities—to cover surgical abortions as part of "basic health services."

Last year, then-Attorney General and now Senator, Kamala Harris worked with Planned Parenthood to craft legislation making Daleiden's journalism illegal in California.

This kind of systematic lawmaking to make sure as many babies are aborted as possible is indistinguishable from a religious zeal. It is what a theocracy would begin to look like.

Moloch worship is the state religion of California.