CNN's Erin Burnett suggested that media “on the left” may have failed to cover the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell for political reasons -- even though Burnett herself had never previously covered Gosnell's story.
Gosnell is currently on trial for murder, accused of grotesque behavior in providing illegal late-term abortions. Conservative media have been engaged in a campaign to pressure the media for providing what they consider insufficient coverage to the trial.
On the April 12 broadcast of her show, Burnett hosted a segment to examine why the story “hasn't gotten much attention in the media at all, it seems.” While discussing the trial with Salon reporter Irin Carmon, Burnett said:
BURNETT: [T]here are many people out there, as you're aware, on the right who are saying, “Look, it's pro-choice people on the left who aren't going to cover this story, because they're pro-choice and this hurts their agenda. It's such an awful, horrific thing. It'll make people more adverse to abortion. That's bad for them, so they're not covering it.” What do you say to those people as someone who reports on this issue?
Burnett then acknowledged that CNN's own research showed there were almost no media outlets that had run stories “which mentioned [Gosnell's] name more than three times,” indicating that the story wasn't being covered “only on the right, obviously.”
Yet moments later, she asked guest Donna Brazile, “Do you reject the argument that is being made by many on the right ... that, they say, the mainstream media and those who are pro-choice have ignored this story because it makes abortion look horrific?”
According to a Nexis search, Burnett's own show has never, before this broadcast, covered Gosnell's story.
Burnett's show started in October 2011. Gosnell was arrested in January 2011, and his trial began on March 18 of this year.
The New York Post and Fox News' The Five have both claimed that the story is being ignored by “liberal media” while failing to cover the story themselves.
While Burnett hyped the claim that “the left” is ignoring the story because “it makes abortion look horrific,” as many have pointed out, Gosnell's actions were already illegal -- and tighter abortion laws could lead to more clinics like Gosnell's. As Phillymag.com blogger Simon van Zuylen-Wood wrote:
The moral to be drawn from the Gosnell trial is not that current abortion laws are screwed up. Indeed, Gosnell broke them, which is why he's on trial. Rather, it's that as individual states increasingly restrict abortion rights, more and more illegal clinics, like Gosnell's may crop up.
Previously:
While Ignoring Gosnell Trial, NY Post Condemns 'Liberal Media' For Ignoring Gosnell Trial
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