By Nate West
News Editor
“This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy — and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.”
That is the opening paragraph of the overview in the Grand Jury Report against Kermit Gosnell, an unlicensed medical school graduate who practiced this in his Philadelphia clinic.
Disgusting, to say the least, right?
A story like this — a story about a man who murdered newborn babies — should be front-page news.
Why isn’t it then?
On Tuesday, three of the eight murder charges were dropped against Gosnell. If found guilty, he still faces the death penalty.
There’s been a significant lack of coverage in the case against Kermit Gosnell. As of Wednesday, on the homepage of CNN’s website, it’s not mentioned once. Same goes for the websites of FOX News, NBC News and CBS News. It’s mentioned once on ABC News.
I’m on Twitter on a fairly regular basis and follow several major news outlets. NBC News had one tweet about the case on Tuesday and nothing Wednesday. Same with CNN. Same with FOX News. Same with CBS News.
Out of the five, only ABC News tweeted about a link to a story multiple times. But both came on Wednesday, a day after the ruling. Both links go to the same article.
Now, it’s understandable as to why it hasn’t been in the news a lot recently. The horror that took place in Boston 11 days ago is going to be what people want to hear about, and it’s going to be what all the major news outlets are covering.
What I find hard to believe is that more people want to hear about Reese Witherspoon’s arrest than a doctor who murdered newborn infants. Boston has the world’s attention, but Kermit Gosnell shouldn’t be forgotten. It seems like it is happening.
An April 12 article by Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic said it best.
“It has generated sparse coverage in the national media, and while it’s been mentioned in RSS feeds to which I subscribe, I skip past most news items,”
Friedersdorf said. “I still consume a tremendous amount of journalism. Yet had I been asked at a trivia night about the identity of Kermit Gosnell, I would’ve been stumped and helplessly guessed a green Muppet.”
He continues to say it wasn’t until he read the April 11 column by Kirsten Powers in USA Today that he realized the magnitude of this monstrosity, and recognized the distinct lack of coverage.
I hadn’t heard about it until my sister posted a link on her Facebook page on April 13. I’ve tried to follow it since, but it’s difficult since I seem to be only one of a few who are.
Perhaps the lack of coverage is because no one wants to give this murderer the pleasure of attention. More than likely though, it’s because the crime is too sickening to even think about. People don’t want to spend their evenings listening to an anchor talk abour a monster, so the outlets talk about a story more enjoyable. A story less evil.
I hope as the trial carries on the coverage increases, but I’m not holding my breath.
