After Spending 21 Minutes Covering Arias Trial, Fox's The Five Attack Media For Covering Arias But Not Gosnell

In Their First Report On Gosnell Trial, Hosts Attacks Media For Ignoring Story

Special Programs Abortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by Oliver Willis

Published

Fox News' The Five complained that the media had devoted significant time to the murder trial of Jodi Arias while avoiding that of Dr. Kermit Gosnell. The program's hosts had previously spent 21 minutes covering the Arias trial over seven episodes, but had never mentioned the Gosnell trial until levying their criticism of the media for ignoring the case.  

Gosnell is currently on trial for murder and accused of grotesque and barbaric behavior in the course of providing illegal late-term abortions. Conservatives have been engaged in a campaign to pressure the media for providing what they term insufficient coverage to the trial.

During the April 12 program, co-host Eric Bolling complained that the trial “isn't getting much attention in the press” because it “raises inconvenient issues,”while the Arias trial has received lots of coverage. He asked, “where is the liberal media now?” Promoting the upcoming segment, co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle described the case as an issue “that the mainstream media isn't reporting on.”

A series of chyrons during the segment reinforced Bolling's attack:  “Media cover Arias trial while ignoring trial of abortion doctor,” “MSM turns blind eye to abortion horrors,” “Mainstream media ignores trial of abortion Dr. Kermit Gosnell.”

The April 12 episode of The Five is the first time the Gosnell trial, which began March 18, has been mentioned on the program. By contrast, the hosts havecovered the Arias case over seven episodes for a total of 21 minutes and 33 seconds, according to a Media Matters review of Fox's programming.

Bolling's complaints echo those of the News Corp. owned New York Post, who complained about the “liberal media” ignoring the story while failing to cover it themselves. Salon.com's Alex Seitz-Wald has noted the conservative media's pattern of criticizing the mainstream media for not covering the trial even as they have only begun to mention the case over the past few days.

Other Fox News programs, including The O'Reilly Factor, Special Report, andHuckabee have covered the Gosnell trial.