Abject Abortion Apologist Rachel Maddow Actually Mentions Gosnell Verdict
In likely the only time she'll ever publicly utter the name of convicted baby killer Kermit Gosnell, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow ended her self-imposed blackout of the abortionist's trial and told her viewers he'd been found guilty of murder.
Media coverage of Gosnell's two-month trial was "polarizing," Maddow sniffed, perturbed that so many lesser evolved beings remain unconvinced about the necessity or niceties of abortion on demand. (Video after page break)
Morning Shows Hype Angelina Jolie’s Mastectomies With Nearly 27 Minutes of Coverage; Just 56 Seconds for Gosnell Verdict
ABC and NBC led their morning shows on Tuesday with nearly 10 minutes of "breaking news" coverage of Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. This celebrity-driven story was apparently deemed more important than abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell being found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, as Good Morning America and Today devoted just 38 seconds to the Gosnell trial. (audio clips of Jolie coverage available here; video below the jump)
Altogether, the ABC and NBC morning newscasts aired 19 minutes and 3 seconds of coverage on Jolie. Tuesday's CBS This Morning waited 12 minutes to cover the Hollywood news item, but ultimately ended up setting aside 7 minutes and 49 seconds of air time to the surgeries, versus a 18 second news brief on Gosnell. The total Big Three coverage of Jolie on Tuesday morning, including CBS's reporting, added up to 26 minutes and 52 seconds, as opposed to 56 seconds on the Gosnell case.
Philly Journalist Mullane: Pro-Choice Pa. Gov. Tom Ridge (R) Was Gosnell’s ‘Chief Enabler’
Former Gov. Tom Ridge (Pa.), a pro-choice Republican, was the key reason the horrors of Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia abortion clinic went on undetected for so long, argued reporter J.D. Mullane in an interview with National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez published Tuesday morning at the magazine's website. Mullane, you may recall, is the Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times news writer/columnist who has covered the Gosnell infanticide trial from day one, and who tweeted the now famous photo of the near-empty benches in the courthouse allotted for media coverage of the trial. [see below the page break]
Responding to Lopez's question, "How did Pennsylvania ever let this happen?" Mullane replied that the Keystone State's former governor "Tom Ridge, is, to me, Gosnell's chief enabler" [emphasis mine]:
For First Time, All Three Networks Cover Gosnell
“In Philadelphia today,” anchor Scott Pelley said on the May 13 CBS “Evening News,” there was a verdict in a murder trial that got national attention.” He was talking about the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, and whatever “national attention” it received was given grudgingly by the media – including Pelley’s own network.
In fact, it took 56 days, multiple letters from members of the House of Representatives and a public demand from conservative groups, before all three broadcast networks reported on Gosnell.
Finally: 56 Days Later, ABC Ends Blackout and Covers Gosnell ‘House of Horrors’
Fifty six days after the grisly trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell began, ABC broke its self-imposed blackout and finally offered coverage. World News anchor Diane Sawyer belatedly told viewers that Gosnell was convicted on three counts of first degree murder against newborn babies, as well as on a slew of other charges. Terry Moran explained, "For two months, jurors heard often shocking, grisly testimony." He described the details as a "house of horrors." A house of horrors that ABC took 56 days to notice.
As the Media Research Center has aggressively documented, ABC went from March 18, 2013 (the trial's start) through Monday afternoon with no coverage. Yet during the same time, the network devoted a staggering 187 minutes (or 70 segments) to other shocking criminal cases, such as Jodi Arias and Amanda Knox.
New York Times Breaks Gosnell Guilty Verdicts By Labeling Victims ‘Fetuses’ Six Times
The New York Times unsurprisingly stuck by its biased language on the abortion issue as it broke the news that a jury had found Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder on Monday. Jon Hurdle labeled the convicted murderer's victims "fetuses" in the second sentence of his article. Hurdle would go on to use the slanted term five more times in his write-up.
The correspondent later acknowledged that the prosecution had referred to the murder victims as babies, but only after using his "fetuses" label.
FLASHBACK: NBC’s Dr. Nancy Orders Obama’s IRS to Go After Catholic Bishops
The revelation that the IRS was being used by liberals as a political weapon against conservative groups like the Tea Party makes NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman's 2009 call on the tax agency to investigate Catholic bishops even more chilling.
During an MSNBC November 12, 2009 segment about Catholic bishops' opposition to abortion funding in ObamaCare, Snyderman joined NOW President Terry O'Neill in calling on the IRS to investigate them. (video after the jump)
Abortionist Gosnell Found Guilty of Murder: Will ABC Finally Break Shameful Blackout of Coverage?
Jurors found abortionist Kermit Gosnell guilty on Monday of three first degree murder charges. In the eight weeks since the trial began, ABC has completely ignored the case, offering no coverage, discussion or mention of Gosnell and the gory details. It's not as though the network lacks interest in shocking criminal trials. In that same 56 day period, Good Morning America has devoted a staggering 187 minutes-- or 70 segments-- to sensational trials such as the Jodi Arias and Amanda Knox cases.
Over eight weeks, GMA featured Arias, who was convicted of slitting the throat of her ex-boyfriend, 38 times, more than 50 percent of the network's criminal trial coverage. Yet, World News, Nightline and GMA skipped Gosnell "snipping" the necks of newborn babies. Will ABC break the news blackout and cover the verdict?
Free Speech for Conservative Students?
It sounded like a freedom-of-religion case when a Columbus, Texas high school relay-race team was disqualified from the state track championship because Derrick Hayes pointed heavenward after his team won the race. That would seem odd in a red state like Texas. It turned out that officials were so strict, they warned runners to make no hand gestures after the finish line. Hayes had apparently pointed forward, and then upward, and for that, he was out.
Happy Mother’s Day: Celebrate life
Have a joyous day, mamas. Just shared this on Twitter — one of my fave pics with my daughter from 12 years ago. She is now taller than me and wears my clothes.
Flashback five years ago: Happy Mother’s Day: Everyday conversations with my 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son
Cherish every second. It goes by so fast.
***
Please consider donating to Live Action in support and celebration of those who defend life.
Bozell Column: Free Speech for Conservative Students?
It sounded like a freedom-of-religion case when a Columbus, Texas high school relay-race team was disqualified from the state track championship because Derrick Hayes pointed heavenward after his team won the race. That would seem odd in a red state like Texas. It turned out that officials were so strict, they warned runners to make no hand gestures after the finish line. Hayes had apparently pointed forward, and then upward, and for that, he was out.
It can be tough to be a student in today’s public schools. Never mind restrictions on the schools. It is becoming impossible to express a socially conservative or Christian viewpoint – as a student. Across the land, everyone is ordered to welcome without a discouraging word any expression of the gay or transgender variety. But try to say the G-word or oppose abortion, and watch someone lower the boom.
Pro-Choice Reporter Reconsiders Position Due To Gosnell Trial
If there is anything positive that can come out of the Gosnell trial, other than a guilty verdict, is that it seems to have changed the mind of at least one pro-choice reporter. As more of the gruesome details emerged from the trial, the journalist in question just couldn’t stomach that babies born alive were murdered in such a fashion.
J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier, who is described as pro-life, who has been present at the Gosnell trial from day one, said, “there is one journalist sitting in that courtroom who writes for a local publication who has told me that he is very liberal, very pro-choice… but after sitting through the testimony in the Gosnell trial, he's reconsidered. He's changed his mind.” As Mullane aptly noted, “that’s the power of the Gosnell case.”
Senate Resolution to Prevent ‘More Gosnells’ Blocked
Even defenders of the mainstream media, which have underreported the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, will have trouble explaining why a Senate resolution aimed at preventing future Gosnell-type atrocities was blocked Monday evening. Caroline May at The Daily Caller writes:
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee attempted to hotline the resolution to express ‘the sense of the Senate that Congress and the States should investigate and correct abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices’ Monday evening, but an unknown senator objected to its unanimous passage, according to Lee’s office.
‘It is difficult to imagine why anyone would object to a non-binding resolution calling on Congress to investigate these alleged disturbing, horrific, and illegal abortion practices committed by Kermit Gosnell and others,’ Lee said in a statement.
‘With numerous reports of similar instances surfacing around the country, the need for greater regulatory oversight of these so-called clinics is so plainly obvious it strains the limits of disbelief to think all members of the Senate would not agree,’ he added. ‘The resolution is simply an affirmation that we as a country — a moral and compassionate society — have an interest in acting to save the lives of innocent women and children, and to prevent these kinds of heinous acts from happening to anyone again.’
Lee’s resolution has 11 co-sponsors. It focuses on the atrocities Gosnell has been accused of perpetrating. Prosecutors at his trial, which is entering its fifth day of jury deliberations, presented voluminous evidence and testimony to support the 250 charges leveled against the 72-year-old abortionist, among them four counts of first-degree murder.
Insisting that the Gosnell case “should be a wake-up call,” Lee said in a statement on Monday:
The lack of oversight at abortion facilities puts women’s lives at risk and leads to the kind of unconscionable practices we have seen recently. The Senate should formally recognize that this is a problem in our country and we have a responsibility to investigate the causes, review the effects of certain public policies, and determine what we can do to prevent any woman from being subjected to these reprehensible practices again.
May notes that on Tuesday, the left-wing blog ThinkProgress argued on behalf of the move to block Lee’s resolution, stating that the purported safeguards in his measure would actually result in more women visiting shady practices like Gosnell’s.
Pushing to tighten restrictions on all abortion providers ends up forcing safe, legal clinics to close their doors. And that ultimately limits women’s access to the reproductive care they need, leading some desperate women to resort to unsafe abortion services when they’re left with no other options.
But that argument seems to presuppose that Gosnell operated out of a back alley using a dirty knife, when in fact his clinic, named Women’s Medical Society of Philadelphia, was in plain view for two decades. During that time, Gosnell allegedly snipped the spines of untold numbers of babies born alive and trained staff in his methodology.
As a side note, it is interesting that those on the left, who are generally bullish on regulations, would be so quick to dismiss rules governing a process that in its soundest practice ends a human life.
One also expects left-wing reporters who made a huge fuss over the failure of the Manchin-Toomey gun bill to pass the Senate will likely ignore Lee's resolution failing to pass as well.
MSNBC’s S.E. Cupp Provides Viewers Some Much Needed Perspective On Gosnell
Ever since MSNBC finally chose to cover the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the majority of MSNBC hosts have used the case as a disgusting opportunity to slam conservatives who want to regulate abortion clinics. Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough was the first MSNBCer to actually mention the case, expressing disgust and outrage over the abortionist's practices.
Today, which marks the 6th day since the jury entered deliberations, the network’s only other conservative, S.E. Cupp, finally used her daily platform to express similar outrage over the case involving Gosnell. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
On CNN Newsroom, It’s Doctor Kermit Who?
Mainstream media’s limited reporting on the murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell has been obvious. You might think that CNN, the self-styled “Most Trusted Name in News," would pay more attention to a case involving over 250 criminal counts, including ones for first-degree murder.
You’d be wrong. Today, CNN’s Newsroom occupied six hours of air time. The Gosnell trial was mentioned only twice. Anchor Wolf Blitzer reported:
In Philadelphia, the 72-year-old abortion doctor, Kermit Gosnell is awaiting his fate. He's accused of first degree murder for allegedly killing babies born alive during late term abortions. Jurors are now in their fifth day of deliberating after not reaching a verdict Friday.
Has Gosnell Murder Case Made Partial Birth Abortion Horrors Harder to Spin Away?
Despite being largely ignored by the national press, has the murder trial against Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell effected a permanent change on the debate over abortion? Yes, argues Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, one of several major pro-life groups. Now that the gruesome reality of partial birth abortions have been revealed in a court of law by the government itself, things will never be the same, Dannenfelser argues.
“It will be very difficult from here on out to talk about at least post-viability abortions without remembering those images and that there are two sets of rights involved here,” she told NewsBusters in a interview.
During Special Documentary, Fox News Highlights Media Bias In Lack Of Gosnell Coverage
We here at NewsBusters have been documenting the virtual blackout of the Gosnell murder trial by the liberal media. As of May 6, the Big Three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) have offered scant if any coverage of the gruesome murder trial of Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
In a May 3 special on the Kermit Gosnell case entitled “See No Evil” Fox News not only gave an in-depth and graphic account of the charges against Gosnell but also documented the broadcast media blackout of the case. Narrator Bret Baier introduced the segment by noting that:
Skipping ‘Controversial Stings’ of the Left
The Washington Post reported something surprising on April 29 – a hidden-camera expose by pro-life advocates. On the front page of the Metro section, they reported how a veteran D.C. abortion doctor named Cesare Santangelo told a 24-week pregnant woman that in the unlikely event that an abortion resulted in a live birth, “we would not help it.”
"[T]echnically, you know, legally, we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive, but it probably wouldn't," he said in a way to reassure the woman who was working for the undercover group Live Action.
Kirsten Powers: Abortion Rights Movement Is ‘The NRA Of The Left’
Kirsten Powers at Daily Beast made a shocking comparison – legislatively speaking – concerning the Gosnell trial and the abortion rights movement in her column today. They’ve become “the NRA of the left," the liberal but pro-life Democrat charges.
To her buddies on the Left, those are meant to be fighting words. There is no greater insult for liberals than to be compared to the National Rifle Association, the nation's oldest civil rights organization founded in 1871.
‘Face the Nation’ Spends 30 Minutes on Gay NBA Player, Still No Mention of Gosnell
Does the outing of a previously almost unknown basketball player really deserve a half hour's coverage on a broadcast television Sunday political talk show?
The folks at CBS certainly felt it does as Face the Nation actually devoted the entire second half of its program Sunday to Jason Collins and gay issues.
WashPost Media Blogger Slices and Dices NARAL Leader’s Claim They Were ‘First Out of the Gate’ on Gosnell Case
Washington Post media blogger Erik Wemple spends a lot of time picking apart Fox broadcasts, but he was stunned by a Thomas Roberts interview on MSNBC with the new leader of NARAL Pro-Choice America, Ilyse Hogue. She claimed “we were the first out of the gate to call attention to this case.” Like a news butler, Roberts set her up to make that bizarre claim and then moved on to the next publicist's softball.
Wemple shot back: “Having done precisely 3,454 Nexis and Internet search on the Gosnell case, we missed the part where NARAL had led a charge to highlight the alleged atrocities in West Philadelphia.” He kept searching, and NARAL’s new boss kept looking sillier and sillier:
Pro-Life Leaders Blame Media for Coverage on Gosnell, Baby Killing
Live Action, a "new media movement dedicated to ending abortion and building a culture of life," hosted a "Stop the Killing" infanticide protest in front of abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s clinic in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 2013.
At the protest, MRC’s Culture and Media Institute asked speakers about the media's coverage of infanticide, especially in connection with the Kermit Gosnell case – watch their answers below.
Pro-Life Leaders Blame Media for Coverage on Gosnell, Baby Killing
Live Action, a "new media movement dedicated to ending abortion and building a culture of life," hosted a "Stop the Killing" infanticide protest in front of abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s clinic in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 2013.
At the protest, MRC’s Culture and Media Institute asked speakers about the media's coverage of infanticide, especially in connection with the Kermit Gosnell case – watch their answers below.
Bozell Statement: NBC Protests Gosnell Trial Too Gruesome; Yet They Covered Casey Anthony
Last night, NBC Nightly News deliberately censored the grisly details of abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s alleged crimes. Claiming that they’re "too gruesome" to be discussed on television is absolute nonsense. NBC News covered the Casey Anthony child murder trial 12 times on Nightly News in 2011, including multiple graphic descriptions of that crime. If they can talk about Caylee Anthony’s body decomposing in the trunk of a car, they can talk about Gosnell "snipping" spinal cords to kill babies born alive.
The difference is that the details of this murder trial raise serious questions about abortion, the liberal media’s most sacred cow.
NY Times Pits ‘Conservatives’ Against ‘Advocates for Women’s Health’ at Planned Parenthood
The New York Times's Pam Belluck wrote twice about the emerging controversy over the Food and Drug Administration's decision immediately allowing girls under 15 to receive Plan B One-Step, the morning-after pill for emergency birth control, without a prescription or parental consent. Citing safety concerns, the Obama administration had previously overruled the FDA, which had removed all age restrictions on access to the pill. Obama's Justice Department announced yesterday that it will appeal the FDA's latest "compromise" decision.
Taking on Obama from the left, Belluck twice pitted "conservative and anti-abortion groups against advocates for women’s health and reproductive rights," first in Wednesday's "Drug Agency Lowers Age For Next-Day Birth Control."
PBS Laughably Claims Gosnell Trial Has Gotten ‘A Lot of Attention’
For the second time in a regular news story, PBS mentioned the trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on Tuesday’s NewsHour. And yet Gosnell was not the subject of the story in question. The mention came at the tail end of a piece on the battle over abortion restrictions in state legislatures.
Anchor Jeffrey Brown presented the trial as the concern of “anti-abortion activists”: [Video below. MP3 audio here.]
Low Blow: Daily Beast’s Tomasky Attacks GOP Governor As ‘Sleazy Christian’
Hard-left Daily Beast writer Michael Tomasky has a nasty habit of smearing conservatives every chance he gets, and it seems he has found his newest target, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.). Writing in a May 1 piece for the online publication Tomasky used the FBI investigation over gifts McDonnell received for his daughter’s wedding to slam the Virginia governor's Christian faith.
Tomasky started off his rant by throwing harsh language at the governor, calling his actions, “sleazy and cowardly.” At issue is the controversial relationship McDonnell has with businessman Jonnie Williams and whether or not the governor accepted money for political benefits aimed at Williams’ company, Star Scientific Inc.