If it bleeds it leads is a common mentality among journalists and media outlets, meaning the more violent or gruesome a story is, the better their ratings, the more ink is dedicated to the story.
Evidently there is an exception to that rule these days... because one of the most gruesome stories, the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, is being basically ignored.
Democratic Kirsten Powers, writes over at USA Today, that "We've forgotten what belongs on Page One."
Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven't heard about these sickening accusations?
It's not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page. The revolting revelations of Gosnell's former staff, who have been testifying to what they witnessed and did during late-term abortions, should shock anyone with a heart.
One witness swear that babies, older than the state's 24-week limit for abortions, were born after a botched abortion, and were moving according to one witness, then were brutally killed?
But Williams ultimately stuck to Tuesday's testimony that she saw independent movement in the newborn whose spinal cord she had snipped with scissors and that what was going on at Gosnell's clinic was wrong.
That baby moved. That was not a spasm. It moved?" Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore asked.
"Yes," Williams said.
Williams called it standard procedure to snip the neck of a fetus delivered after a woman took labor-inducing drugs but before the doctor could perform an abortion. She also said that premature deliveries in those circumstances increased significantly in the 15 months she worked for Gosnell.
Williams and seven other clinic employees have pleaded guilty to various charges. Williams, 44, of Wilmington, Del., has admitted to third-degree murder charges and conspiracy and faces up to 100 years in prison. Gosnell, 72, could face the death penalty if he is convicted. He is on trial with one of his employees, unlicensed doctor Eileen O'Neill, who is charged with theft for allegedly practicing medicine without a license.
More from Powers on the media blackout of this trial:
A Lexis-Nexis search shows none of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months. The exception is when Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan hijacked a segment on Meet the Press meant to foment outrage over an anti-abortion rights law in some backward red state.
The Washington Post has not published original reporting on this during the trial and The New York Times saw fit to run one original story on A-17 on the trial's first day. They've been silent ever since, despite headline-worthy testimony.
Let me state the obvious. This should be front page news. When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop media hysteria. The venerable NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams intoned, "A firestorm of outrage from women after a crude tirade from Rush Limbaugh," as he teased a segment on the brouhaha. Yet, accusations of babies having their heads severed — a major human rights story if there ever was one — doesn't make the cut.
You don't have to oppose abortion rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy. This is not about being "pro-choice" or "pro-life." It's about basic human rights.
She is right, this isn't about abortion at all, this is about infanticide, killing living breathing babies, outside the womb.
Does that not bleed enough for the media's lead?
[Update] Read the 281-page Report To The Grand Jury. Highlight- Page 74
[Update #2] Media also ignores a second abortion clinic horror story at Planned Parenthood in Delaware.
Related:
Planned Parenthood Endorses Post-Birth Abortion Of Living, Breathing Child, After Botched Abortion