Kermit Gosnell Trial: Case Of Doctor Accused Of Murdering Babies Flies Under Media Radar

Kermit Gosnell stands accused of running an abortion operation in Philadelphia in which he delivered healthy, nearly full-term babies and severed their spinal cords with scissors.

But though his trial is going on now in Pennsylvania, the Gosnell case has garnered little if any attention from the mainstream media. Conor Fridersdorf, a writer for The Atlantic, admitted that he hadn’t even heard about the case until last week, but once he read the details he was shocked that it wasn’t national news.

In a lengthy article he wrote about the Kermit Gosnell case, Friedersdorf refers to the grand jury report against the 72-year-old Gosnell.

The document read:

“This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels — and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths.”

Given those horrific details, Friedersdorf wondered how the case could fail to generate any attention from major media outlets outside of Philadelphia.

“Why isn’t it being covered more?” he wrote. “I’ve got my theories. But rather than offer them at the end of an already lengthy item, I’d like to survey some of the editors and writers making coverage decisions.”

One of the few members of the national media to cover the Kermit Gosnell case is Kirsten Power, who USA Todaycolumn about the trial.

“Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?” she wrote.

“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.”

Power noted that Lexis-Nexis search turned it nothing from major television news outlets about the Kermit Gosnell case, and only a small blurb hidden deep within the New York Times.

She added that the Kermit Gosnell case doesn’t fall within the normal “pro life vs. pro choice” arguments. She writes, “It’s about basic human rights.”