Media Seating Area at the Gosnell Trial

This picture is actually Pulitzer-worthy. The judge in the Gosnell trial set aside some seats for the media, as judges do in high-profile cases.

Silly judge.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post reporter explains why she covers all sorts of national issues but hasn't written a word about this one.

Note that Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a dirty word got a lot of coverage by this reporter, but this story is just a "local crime story."

Like Newtown was. But then Newtown had "national ramifications" for legislation... that the media desired. This story also has national ramifications for legislation... that the media does not desire.

Great article at Patheos.

[T]he thing is that I’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding Planned Parenthood. And then we had how many months of coverage focused on someone calling a birth control activist a bad name? And who can forget every pro-life person in the country being asked to respond to Todd Akin’s stupid remarks about rape?

So our abortion-drenched media would certainly want to cover what is arguably the country’s most horrific serial murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, right? Well, far from the front-page, top of the news, daily update coverage you rightfully would expect, it’s been downplayed. Majorly downplayed.

...

But gosh darn it, can you think of any policy implications to this, uh, “local crime” story? And that’s all it is. Just like a bunch of other local stories the Washington Post also refuses to cover — local crimes such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and the killing of Matthew Shepard and the killing of students at an elementary school in Connecticut. Did the Washington Post even think of covering those local crime stories? No! Oh wait, they did? Like, all the time? Hmm. That’s weird. But did they cover them in terms of policy implications? Asking politicians for their views and such? Oh they did that, too? Hmm. So weird. Oh, and Sarah Kliff [Ms. Just a Local Crime Story -- ace] herself wrote one of those stories? Well, gosh, I’m so confused.

And what policies could possibly be under discussion with this Gosnell trial?

...

Journalists aren’t exactly coming to her defense either. In the words of Andrew Kirell:

Yeahhhh, so I’m pro-choice, but this Gosnell story is awful. And oh boy does it look bad for reporters normally on the health/abortion beat.

I've got one question for the media:

If the jury votes for the death penalty, how are you going to explain to your readers your complete embargo on this story? I imagine at this point you'd have to note that someone had received a capital sentence; at that point, what's your excuse for having not said a word about it?

posted by Ace at 12:19 PM

| Access Comments