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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThere is no Gosnell coverup
The horrors and underlying disparities exploited by Kermit Gosnell aren't new -- nor have they been ignored(UPDATE)
BY IRIN CARMON
This week, the right wing has been working the refs, demanding to know why the press has been allegedly silent on the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia doctor who allegedly committed horrific acts against his patients with impunity for years. Fox News Kristen Powers kicked it off with an Op-Ed in USA Today, claiming, The deafening silence of too much of the media, once a force for justice in America, is a disgrace. Michelle Malkin has helped spearhead a Twitter campaign. Breitbart.com calls it a full-blown, coordinated blackout throughout the entire national media.
And mostly, the campaign is working, generating a series of sheepish responses (and a near-instant BuzzFeed listicle). In an Atlantic piece headlined, Why Dr. Kermit Gosnells trial should be a front page story, Conor Friedersdorf admits, Until Thursday, I wasnt aware of this story Had I been asked at a trivia night about the identity of Kermit Gosnell, I wouldve been stumped and helplessly guessed a green Muppet. Slates Dave Weigel congratulated the tweeters for getting his attention and then filed a piece sympathetic to the coverup claim, lecturing pro-choice people that You really should read that grand jury report, and concluding, Social conservatives are largely right about the Gosnell story.
No, they arent right about the Gosnell story. If youve never heard of the Gosnell story, its not because of a coverup by the liberal mainstream media. Its probably because you failed to pay attention to the copious coverage among pro-choice and feminist journalists, as well as the big news organizations, when the news first broke in 2011. There would be something rich, if it werent so infuriating, about these (almost uniformly male, as it happens) reporters and commentators scrambling to break open this shocking untold story. You know, the one that was written about here, here and here, to name some disparate sources.
I cant speak for big news organizations like CNN and the networks, but lets think about this question another way: How often do such places devote their energies to covering the massive health disparities and poor outcomes that are wrought by our current system? How often are the travails of the women whose vulnerabilities Gosnell exploited the poor, immigrants and otherwise marginalized people given wall-to-wall, trial-level coverage? If youre surprised that in the face of politicized stigma, lack of public funding or good information, and a morass of restrictive laws allegedly meant to protect women, the vacuum was filled by a monster well, the most generous thing I can say is that you havent been paying attention.
But since youre here, guys welcome. Here are some important things to know about the tragedies committed in Gosnells clinic, based on the sources you missed. This week, as Virginia-based pro-choice activist Michelle Kinsey Bruns noted on Twitter, Fitting that the right is trying to whip folks into a frenzy over #Gosnell the same day VA is trying to put safe abortion care out of reach. Shes referring to so-called TRAP laws, which are regulations aimed at abortion clinics that have nothing to do with safety say, the size of parking lots to seek to drive them out of business, and which are expected to go forward in a vote today. According to Tara Murtha, a Philadelphia-based reporter who has been covering the Gosnell case from the start, in the aftermath of Pennsylvanias own TRAP laws, the state went from 22 free-standing clinics to 13. As Murtha puts it, The bottom line is that politicizing abortion led to Gosnell. Their answer? Politicize it more.
more:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/12/there_is_no_gosnell_coverup/
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