Media silence on the gosnell trial and how it was overcome

As one of the most horrific and historic trials began and continued for weeks against Doctor Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist accused of beheading babies born alive, the American mainstream media remained exceptionally silent and the story went virtually unreported by traditional news media. Finally, at the end of last week, two events helped bring Gosnell’s trial into the public arena, forcing people to accept that Kermit Gosnell is not an urban legend, but real.

Last Thursday, Kirsten Powers, a political analyst for Fox News, wrote a very direct column for USA Today, highlighting the fact that no one in the mainstream media was covering the Gosnell trial. Her column stated, “None of the news shows on the three major national television networks has mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last three months,” even though his trial began March 18. The New York Times did run an original story the first day of Gosnell’s trial, but it was only worthy of page A-17 and after that there was only silence.

Long before Powers broke some of the silence on Gosnell’s trial, pro-life advocates Bryan Kemper, Andy Moore, Troy Newman and Jill Stanek had established a plan to shed light on the trial using Twitter since traditional media couldn’t seem to be penetrated. The “tweetfest” began last Friday at 6 a.m. and continued until 6 p.m. that evening. Pro-life organizations joined the event encouraging all of their members to tweet using #Gosnell and ask why the mainstream media was missing from this conversation.

The event was a huge success with 166,800 Tweets posted using #Gosnell and around 600,000 Tweets referencing the abortionist.

Even more importantly the mainstream media was forced to sit up and take notice not only of the trial, but also the fact that a media blackout had occurred. Megan McArdle, a pro-choice reporter from the Daily Beast admitted to ignoring what she called “The Trial of the Century” and apologized for not covering it. She states, “But I understand why my readers suspect me, and other pro-choice mainstream media journalist of being selective — of not wanting to cover the story because it showcased the ugliest possibilities of abortion rights.”

Some media outlets have stuck with the belief that there was no media cover up and the conservative right wing is simply embellishing the situation. Salon Magazine writer Irin Carmon claimed in an article that pro-choice activists and feminist have been covering this all along, so if you don’t know who Gosnell is you simply haven’t been paying attention.

The first “tweetfest” was such a success that another one took place yesterday with an even stronger strategy to keep the conversation about Gosnell going and get even more people involved. Bryan Kemper, the “tweetfest” organizer, said this time people were being encouraged to reach out to celebrities on Twitter who are pro-life, since they have such large followings. Last week, pro-life celebrity Patricia Heaton tweeted about Gosnell and her statement was retweeted over 600 times. Famous people being approached included Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani, Chuck Norris, and famous pastors such as a Rick Warren.

As of yesterday morning, #Gosnell was already trending in the top ten list of topics on Twitter. Co-organizer Andy Moore stated, “It’s a pretty big deal that not only have we been able to trend Gosnell for a second time, but also that it was so early into the tweetfest.” No matter what the media’s opinion about the Gosnell trial or the coverage, no one can deny the fact that now everyone is talking about it.

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Media silence on the gosnell trial and how it was overcome

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