26 Were Killed in Newtown; Seven Were Slaughtered in Kermit Gosnell's Death-Lab.
So, the Media's Done About One Story on the Gosnell Trial for Every Four on Newtown, Right?

Riiiiiiight.

That 4:1 ratio is very nearly correct; it's off by only one. It's 4:0.

The two cases are different in that Sandy Hook received wall-to-wall coverage and thus facilitated a national conversation about mental health and gun control -- a debate whose outcome is yet to be determined.

Not so with the Gosnell trial, which has been completely blacked out by the media. The American people are now like a jury, shielded from relevant information because judges (read: editors) decided it might prejudice their views -- in this case, against lightly regulated abortionists.

...

[T]elevision coverage of Gosnell's trial has been "hard to find," as the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan put it very charitably last Sunday on "Meet the Press."

In fact, not counting Noonan's allusion, Gosnell's case has not been mentioned even once on any of the three major networks in the last month (his trial began March 18).

It has received only seven mentions on cable television since it began, one on CNN and six on Fox News. In print, Gosnell's case has been largely ignored outside of local media outlets in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The media only pushes wedge issues against Republicans. It's just that simple.

A wedge issue splits off a party (with its more hardcore side) away from the middle. Obviously, the GOP's strong, near-absolute 2nd Amendment stance is a possible problem for them with the squishy middle. Hence, the media's desire to push this.

Similarly, the media's desire to push gay marriage.

But when a wedge issue presents itself that might split off the center from hardcore liberals -- liberals who support "abortion" up to and beyond the point of actual kill-a-live-baby infanticide -- the media won't even cover the story.

People might "draw the wrong conclusions." People might get "whipped up into a frenzy." None of these concerns apply to Republican wedge-issues, it seems. Only to ones that might hurt the Democrats. In this case, the media decides they dare not even mention the issue... lest the public get the wrong idea, and decide that maybe liberalism has gone several steps too far.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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