Media MIA From Gruesome Abortion Trial

“If it bleeds it leads” is the mantra for the media who normally love morbid crime stories. Unless that story is inconvenient for certain sacred liberal cows, in which case not so much.

Here’s a picture of the empty seating air reserved for media at the Kermit Gosnell trial:

From the blogger who took the picture:

…the picture above, for what it’s worth, is of the reserved media seats at the Gosnell trial. It was taken by JD Mullane, a news writer and columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intel and the Burlington County (NJ) Times. He says:

“Sat through a full day of testimony at the Kermitt Gosnell trial today. It is beyond the most morbid Hollywood horror. It will change you.”

I was surprised by the picture and asked “really?” He responded “Local press was there, Inky, PhillyMag, NBC10 blogger. Court staff told me nobody else has shown up.”

If you haven’t been following, the trial is about exploited women, dead babies and racism. It should be garnering national media attention, except it doesn’t fit the “war on women” narrative the Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media have been pushing since the last election cycle.

So it gets no coverage. And I don’t actually think that’s a conspiracy. I just think the media has become so monolithic in their left-wing bias that something like this can happen spontaneously without any need for coordination.

Update: From the Grand Jury report, note that Gosnell’s clinic was able to operate as the horror show it was for so long because the State of Pennsylvania decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics:

Pennsylvania is not a third-world country. There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago. But none of them did…

The first line of defense was the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The department’s job is to audit hospitals and outpatient medical facilities, like Gosnell’s, to make sure that they follow the rules and provide safe care. The department had contact with the Women’s Medical Society dating back to 1979, when it first issued approval to open an abortion clinic. It did not conduct another site review until 1989, ten years later. Numerous violations were already apparent, but Gosnell got a pass when he promised to fix them. Site reviews in 1992 and 1993 also noted various violations, but again failed to ensure they were corrected.

But at least the department had been doing something up to that point, however ineffectual. After 1993, even that pro form a effort came to an end. Not because of administrative ennui, although there had been plenty. Instead, the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all.

Horrifying.