Columnist blasts media for Gosnell tardiness

Philadelphia, Pa., Apr 30, 2013 / 09:17 am

In a column written for Catholic News Agency, former editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register Francis Maier has called attention to the media's failure to cover the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

Closing arguments were made in Gosnell's trial in Philadelphia on April 29. He is charged with the murder of one mother and four infants who were allegedly killed after being born alive despite his efforts to abort them.

Charges involving three other infants were thrown out, after the trial judge decided the prosecution had not presented enough evidence that they had been born alive.

Nine of Gosnell's employees have faced state and federal charges for their actions at the clinic. Eight have already pleaded guilty to various charges in the case – three of them to third-degree murder.

"Most prestigious national media have seemed remarkably eager to ignore the story until shamed into covering it," Maier wrote in his April 30 column.

He said that Philadelphia media outlets have done a good job covering the story, but noted that it took the New York Times about a month to pay any attention to the story.

"The vivid details of the Gosnell clinic tragedy have the kind of salacious appeal that few national media would normally avoid – if the issue were anything else," he explained.

For Maier, a Philadelphia resident, the most compelling story in the Gosnell case is the lack of attention that it garnered for so long. He blames mainstream media for ignoring the inconvenience of the story. Learning of the horrors committed at Gosnell's clinic, Americans might be faced with the horror of abortion overall.

Maier finds it distressing that outlets should keep the facts of Gosnell's practices out of the news lest people be compelled to do anything about such practices.

"Some stories, no matter how unsettling, just can't be ignored – even when some people are determined to look away," he said.