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Kevin ClarkeApril 12, 2013

Here's Kirsten Powers at USA Today wading through the incomprehensible horror show that is the Kermit Gosnell story in Philadelphia and wondering why there is "precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page." It's easy to understand why any human being would want to skip hearing about infant assassinations, baby beheadings, newborns left to sob themselves to death on "clinic" shelves and the rest of the tales of the macabre emanating from this gruesome trial testimony. But reporters are paid to swallow hard and represent the public interest during such awful spectacles; the idea is when the public is informed violations like this are far less likely to be repeated. So where is the national media?

Powers writes: "A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months. The exception is when Wall Street Journalcolumnist Peggy Noonan hijacked a segment on Meet the Press meant to foment outrage over an anti-abortion rights law in some backward red state.

"The Washington Post has not published original reporting on this during the trial and The New York Times saw fit to run one original story on A-17 on the trial's first day. They've been silent ever since, despite headline-worthy testimony."

Reporters who have attended Gosnell's trial say the seating reserved for media has been left mostly vacant. How can Gosnell's trial and the suffering he inflicted on his clients, his exploited staff (many of whom have accepted plea deals to testify against him) and an unknown number of "aborted" babies that were born viable not be newsworthy? Are major media outlets so enamored of "choice" culture they can't bring themselves to publish anything that upsets the narrative of fetal inhumanity?

I can only hope that N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo is somehow, despite the relative inattention of the NY Times, following this case as he seeks to expand the options for late-term abortions in New York, a state that already maintains an unusually high rate of abortion to live births. I don't want to live in a state where a gang of soon-to-be Gosnells will be allowed to proliferate, legally.

 

Previous coverage on this in America:

Outrage in Philadelphia

Horror Show in Philadelphia

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Beth Cioffoletti
11 years ago
This is horrible. Most of the commentary seems to assume that the media isn't picking up the story because the media is "liberal" and it doesn't bode well for the pro-abortion stance. Then why isn't the conservative media all over it?
Ed Knauf
11 years ago
Beth - what exactly is the "conservative media", other than perhaps Fox News? Fox is the only national media organization that has been covering this case since "Doctor" Gosnell's arrest. This story simply does not fit the worldview of the mainstream media and so they refuse to acknowledge its existence. That worldview is one that our Holy Fathers have called "the culture of death."
Beth Cioffoletti
11 years ago
Ed, I wasn't aware that Fox News was covering this. I thought that none of the major news organizations were. The article I read compared the situation where Rush Limbaugh jumped on the Sandra Fluke story but not this one. Why not? Maybe we should figure out what "mainstream media" is. I consider it to be the NYTimes, WSJ, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSN, FOX - the places most people go for "news" (as opposed to opnion and commentary). Has FOX been on this story all along? If so, good for them.
Beth Cioffoletti
11 years ago
Sorry, I misinterpreted that Rush Limbaugh thing. They were comparing the media hysteria caused when he went after S. Fluke to the relative media silence now to the Kermit G. Trial. I totally agree that this story should be before us and am curious about the silence.
Frank Gibbons
11 years ago
I'm glad that America and NCR have finally addressed the shameful news blackout on this horror.
Ed Knauf
11 years ago
Twenty-six months after his arrest, the Gosnell grand jury report, replete with a picture of the 32-week baby whose neck he cut, is available on-line. May God be praised that it may be this butcher that finally wakes up our nation and world to the horrors of abortion. Now, if only the media saw fit to actually tell the world. May God be praised that there are alternative forms of media .
Carlos Orozco
11 years ago
Mainstream media is a megacorporate dying dinosaur. Serious news can only be found nowadays on alternative media. Outlets such as infowars.com are informative and fun. I don't agree with Alex Jones' hardcore libertarian ideas and subtle Catholic bashing, but I definitely recognize his search global trends and the big picture. Here's a sample coverage on the Gosnell story: http://www.infowars.com/abortionist-joked-this-baby-is-big-enough-to-walk-around-with-me-or-walk-me-to-the-bus-stop/ http://www.infowars.com/gosnell-worker-heard-baby-screaming-during-live-birth-abortion/ http://www.infowars.com/defense-says-prosecution-of-abortionist-who-snapped-newborn-babies-necks-is-racist/
JR Cosgrove
11 years ago
Here is an article over 2 years ago by Elizabeth Scalia, better known as The Anchoress, on the Gosnell trial. I do not know if she wrote anything since, http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/02/gosnell-headlines-gone-baby-gone/elizabeth-scalia Most of the comments are from 2011 when the article ran. The last comment is from yesterday "I had to look twice to make certain of the year this article was first published. Can it be this case has been ignored for over 2 years?!? Seems to me there should be a general outrage which is not limited to the pro-lifers. The procedures Gosnell inflicted upon these women, especially minority women, evoke the grotesque experiments in the early 20th century perpetrated by some in the US military in which black enlisted soldiers were quite deliberatelyintroduced to syphillus. The death penalty for this guy would not inflict sufficient pain to atone for his evil. And the government agencies who ignored what was staring them in the face are complicit in this horror of such immense proportions."
David Smith
11 years ago
There was also an Atlantic article asking why there had been no coverage. This article, following on that article, discusses possible reasons for the media silence.

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