-By Warner Todd Huston
Another week has gone by and the Big Three Networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, again gave scant notice to the “house of horrors” that is the Kermit Gosnell abortion trial. The Nets had time for funny cat pictures on the Internet, a Canadian mayor bumping into a camera, and fun trivia about the book Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but little time for the shocking trial in Philadelphia.
As the week of April 15 came to an end, the prosecution finished presenting its case in the Gosnell trial, but the Big Three Nets still paid little attention to the story. The prosecution’s presentation included shocking horror stories such as parts of fetuses clogging the plumbing in the clinic, that assistants had no medical training or had no licenses to practice, that babies were born alive and breathing until Gosnell shoved scissors into the base of their skulls to kill them, that adult patients were killed by Gosnell and his workers but the nets weren’t interested on Wednesday and Thursday.
What did the Networks cover instead? An analysis by the Media Research Center of the three network’s programming revealed many fun and interesting stories.
On Wednesday April 17, ABC reported that Holly Golightly, the lead character in Truman Caport’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was originally going to be named “Connie Gustafson.” ABC’s Dianne Sawyer also had time to talk of comic book character Superman’s 75th birthday.
Also on April 17, CBS This Morning, offered an in depth report on Toronto’s Mayor, Rob Ford, who ran into a video camera. “That’s just embarrassing on many levels for both parties involved,” CBS reported.
The following day, NBC’s Nightly News reported on actor Dick Van Dyke’s problems with recurring headaches.
Naturally as Friday, April 19 came, much of the reporting time on the networks was reserved for stories about the Tsarnev brothers being apprehended in Boston and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion–and rightfully so. But on Sunday, April 21, CBS’ Today show still had time to talk about funny photos of cats on the Internet. At least CBS did give some coverage to the Gosnell trial on the April 15 broadcast of This Morning, but according to the MRC has not talked of it since.
As MRC President Brent Bozell excoriated the nets saying, “The American people made it clear that the Gosnell trial is a major, national story, but the broadcast networks have plugged their ears and flipped them the bird. With the exception of CBS This Morning’s reporting last Monday, the three broadcast networks are still putting their personal pro-abortion politics ahead of the national interest and censoring this story.”
“NBC asked one question. That is not coverage. CBS ran stories for one morning. That is not coverage. And most shamefully, Disney-owned ABC refuses to cover Gosnell at all. If any organization should be condemning the butchering of children, surely it’s The Walt Disney Company,” Bozell said.
Bozell speculated that the Gosnell story is being given scant attention because the networks “want to protect abortion at all costs.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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