The Atlantic on Dr. Kermit Gosnell

I don't think there's a conspiracy, but we both know enough about how the media actually works to realize this is the kind of story that plenty of people are more than happy not to deal with for a number of reasons. Among those is its political nature. Only a fool would think politics doesn't play a role here -- on both sides, but I'm more interested in the journalistic question PC brought up. Are there stories that are too horrifying to cover? If so, where is that line drawn? Why is that line drawn?

 

I agree with you completely about the fact that there is no local angle for your newscast and why that is a legitimate reason not to cover it. I have a question, though, and I'm not trolling, just generally curious. When you say, "it's not a story I can cover properly without utterly whitewashing what the guy did, because "scissors in the baby's spinal cord" isn't appearing in my newscast" does that mean you wouldn't cover this story if it was local? And, if it was local and you did cover it, why would you feel the need to whitewash anything?

 

Yeah, that could probably use some clarifying.

The guys accused of doing things so horrible I'm absolutely not going to describe them in a newscast. I could say something like "performing barbaric late-term abortions," but even that really seems to soft-pedal what the guy's accused of. (Real-life example to clarify the point -- many, many years ago, there was a scandal in an elite military group, with video surfacing of hazing of new members that bordered on torture. It was pretty graphic and really damning to the group in question. My news director at the time insisted on doing the story... but editing out all of the bad stuff so we didn't disturb the viewers. The end result was, anyone who saw our story walked away thinking it was nothing because the hazing in the video looked like Cub Scout pranks. It was a huge disservice, and we would have been better off not doing the story at all.)

Now if it was local, yeah, I bite the bullet, put up a million disclaimers about what people are about to hear, and then tell the story as much as I can. Even at that, there are some details I'm just not going to use. That's ultimately misleading and I hate that, but I'm not describing some of the stuff this guy's accused of doing. I'd do it in print and I'd put it on the website, but it's not going on TV.

 

Yet, Sandy Hook could be told -- had to be told. And, we have to change our laws as a result.

Gosnell killed more people than any school or movie theater shooter. And, his victims were even younger that those at Sandy Hook.

 

To piggyback YF, anyone who would have said Sandy Hook was too horrifying to cover would rightfully have been shouted down as a partisan nutbag not worthy of being described as anything resembling a real journalist. If you are claiming the same thing in regard to this story, there is no difference.

 

C'mon. Let's be honest. The media -- yes the media -- does not want us sympathizing with the victims here.

That would humanize them, and we can't humanize murdered babies who were meant to be aborted. It's simply not allowed.

If we humanize them, what's the next step?

 

If you believe abortion is murder, that is. I guess this will be the new surrogate politics thread.

 

Have you followed this story at all?

He killed babies that were born alive. That's murder.

What do you think he's on trial for? (And yes, all of his victims were not babies, but most were.)

 

If there were only some channel for those interested in the publicizing the story to publish it around the world.

 

I bet Rupert Murdoch has some spare shekels to throw around. Maybe he'll pull the trigger someday.

 

Would you please knowledge that he is being charged with murdering babies born alive?

You shouldn't continue to post on the thread if you won't admit your earlier statement was off base, and was itself political.

While he's only charged with murdering four babies, the method he used to kill those four was standard procedure in his "clinic". He likely murdered 100s of children.

 

So not only do I now have to worry about crazy gunmen wanting to go to my kids' schools, but now I have to worry about idiot doctors who want to abort me.