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: