The media has largely ignored the death penalty trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell. But why? Many in the media have offered up many reasons for their silence. Let’s have some fun by actually listening to what they’ve said.
1) Our staff is too small!!!
Oh, the poor beleaguered CNN which is so tiny and small. They’d love to cover the trial of the House of Horrors abortionist but they just don’t have the staff to cover it. Their motto should become “CNN. The most trusted but very very tiny name in news.”
Bucks County Courier Columnist JD Mullane tweeted a photo of all the empty media seats in the courtroom and apparently CNN called him to question the accuracy of the photo. He tweeted about that conversation:
CNN called questioning truth of my empty courtroom photo. I said: go to Philly & see. He said he can’t, he has a “small staff.”
2) It’s a conservative pro-life cover-up!!!
This is a good one. You see, the real lesson from this Gosnell trial is that abortion regulations are driving up the cost of abortion so women are forced to go to clinics like Gosnell’s. So the media is actually kinda’ doing you nutty pro-lifers a favor, you ungrateful punks. Maybe a thank you would be in order.
Alan Colmes here says as evidence of this meme, you can just see that none of the conservative media outlets are covering it either like NRO or Twitchy.
Of course this was a complete lie. Michelle Malkin, who was named as not covering the trial published a story on Twitchy showing that she’s covered the story extensively.
Jim Geraghty also did a takedown proving that National Review provided extensive coverage of the trial.
3) It’s a local crime story.
This is my favorite because it’s so dumb. Isn’t every story a “local” story until national media decide otherwise?
Here’s how this one came out. On twitter, Get Religion writer Molly Hemingway asked Post reporter Sarah Kliff on the twitter why she wrote so many stories about Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comment or Sandra “Moan of Arc” Fluke but none on Gosnell.
Kliff responded:
“Hi Molly – I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime, hence why I wrote about all the policy issues you mention,” Kliff said.
Uhm. What was the policy issue at stake in Todd Akin’s comments?
4) It’s too gruesome!
We all know how the more gruesome and bloody the story, the more the media tends to act responsibly and not exploit it, right?
“I’ll tell you why I haven’t covered it,” says Megan McArdle at The Daily Beast. “To start, it makes me ill. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read the grand jury inquiry.”
The Daily Beast should change its motto to “All the news that doesn’t make Megan’s belly feel icky.”
5) We’re giving it the appropriate amount of coverage.
WaPo reports:
“The story is on our radar,” said Liz Fischer, a spokeswoman for NBC News. “We understand the importance of the issue and we’ll continue to cover the broader questions as news warrants.” She declined to comment further.
“CBS has been working the story,” said a spokeswoman, Sonya McNair. She declined to explain why CBS hadn’t reported on it until Sunday’s “CBS Evening News.”
“We feel our coverage, both online and on television, has been thorough and appropriate,” said Allison Gollust, a CNN spokeswoman.
Thorough. As in thoroughly absent.
6) We’re covering the most successful serial killer in history…on Twitter.
Terry Moran, anchor of ABC’s Nightline, called Gosnell “probably the most successful serial killer in the history of the world.” But he didn’t say that on Nightline. He said it on Twitter. ABC has completely ignored the Gosnell story.
I mean, we all know how the networks shy away from stories about serial killers. But perhaps the networks can find time to cover it between the new series “Hannibal” or “The Following.”
7) The truth.
The media is not covering the trial because they don’t want to put abortion in a bad light.
LifeNews.com tortured themselves and watched an entire HuffPost Live segment with host Marc Lamont Hill who admitted:
“For what it’s worth, I do think that those of us on the left have made a decision not to cover this trial because we worry that it’ll compromise abortion rights. Whether you agree with abortion or not, I do think there’s a direct connection between the media’s failure to cover this and our own political commitments on the left. I think it’s a bad idea, I think it’s dangerous, but I think that’s the way it is.”
