Our news outlets are not known for
their squeamish attitude toward violence. On the contrary, reporters are
often criticized for fixating on violence, exploiting it as fodder for the
24-hour news cycle.
We rarely see journalists shying
away from a gruesome case. Yet, the media has been reluctant to cover the
trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell – a Philadelphia abortionist accused of
committing unspeakable crimes at his "Women’s Medical Center."
Already indicted by a grand jury,
Gosnell is on trial for running a "house of horrors," where hundreds of
infants were born alive and beheaded with scissors.
The testimony against him includes
some of the most shocking statements ever made in an American courtroom. His
former aides speak of infants whose hands and feet were kept in jars, and
their bodies flushed down toilets, after they were delivered alive and
decapitated.
Somehow, this story went largely
unnoticed by mainstream reporters. One would expect a murderous doctor,
running a "clinic" reminiscent of Auschwitz, to face a media blitz and a
burst of public outrage.
Instead, Gosnell’s trial has been
treated as a low-key, local story. Pro-life advocates took up the task of
publicizing it, using social media to make up for news outlets’ silence.
I suspect journalists would rather
ignore what happened at Gosnell’s "Medical Center." The case raises too many
disturbing questions – about the mentality behind abortion, and our
culture’s troubling attitude toward human life.
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