Posted on 04/14/2013 1:50:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
When the massacre in Newtown occurred, it received wall-to-wall coverage, as well it should have. We’d never seen anything like this before – a mentally ill gunman shooting tiny children and their teachers in an elementary school. It shocked the senses and dominated the national conversation – as well it should have.
And aside from opportunistic leftists, such as Michael Moore and Piers Morgan, the original coverage leaned toward what caused the murderer to act and how such mental illness might be addressed in the future. But just as a serious and productive conversation was beginning, the political agenda of those in the mainstream media overtook it.
This was not an opportunity to address mental illness in this country and truly head off such disasters – that’s not all that compelling a story and nobody really has the answer – but it was time to talk gun grabbing. It was time to dust off all the old measures that never worked, all the “solutions” that never could move forward under the democratic process and try to use this tragedy to accomplish them.
It’s hard to blame politicians. They can’t help themselves; they can’t let a good crisis go to waste. But we ought to be able to expect a little more from our media – something a little closer to real life than the political agenda of far-left members of Congress.
So, instead of seriously addressing what makes the Adam Lanzas of the world tick, we put a Band-Aid on cancer in pursuit of decades-old liberal causes. And the media cheerleads as if this were a useful use of leaders’ time. Shame on all of them.
Meanwhile, back at Atrocity Ranch, we have Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the butcher of Philadelphia, charged with eight murders and accused of more than 100. Yet the media – until being publicly shamed into switching course late this week – has been silent.
What was missing from the Gosnell story? Why did it not measure up? The details of Gosnell’s actions are so gruesome, so inhuman, as to defy belief. Were they too horrific? Did we not get pretty into the weeds on the Jeffrey Dahmer story?
And why are babies screaming as their spinal cords are snapped to “finish the job” considered not a story by the same people who bring us every shot, slice and stab of the Jodi Arias trial. The world had never heard of Arias or her boyfriend before his murder and, frankly, never should have after.
But a doctor on trial for eight gruesome murders with the implication of hundreds more approaches a serial killer level of fetish for death. Had Gosnell used a gun, we would know all about what he did. The president, the media and the leftists in Congress would have seen to it.
But the weapon here wasn’t a gun; it was progressive sacred cow – abortion. Think what you will of abortion, but there’s a reason the late-term partial birth abortion is performed the way it is – with the baby being brought out backwards to the neck, then piercing the skull to vacuum out the brain – and it’s because if the baby, so near to natural birth, came out head first it would breathe on its own and, even by the old liberal definition, be considered legally alive. And that would make the next step – the step Gosnell seemed all too willing to take – murder.
Details aside, the fact you had heard literally zero about the Gosnell trial until late in the week tells you all you need to know about how utterly corrupt the media has become. Politico economics reporter Ben White tweeted Thursday night, “This Gosnell story which I just began to read up on is unbelievably awful and horrifying.” You wouldn’t expect an economic reporter to write about it, but you’d think a journalist would’ve at least heard about it. But not at Politico. To that day, his employer had not published a single story on the topic.
On Friday, the media began to face the music. Anderson Cooper did the first 15 minutes of his show on these atrocities. But one of his guests, CNN legal analyst Jeffery Toobin, tried to explain the media’s lack of interest in the case when he said, “It’s a business decision. We are not operating with a political agenda here. We pick stories, by and large, for reasons that we think people will be interested. I don’t think we’re covering this up. So I just think that’s a way of ginning up their (pro-life groups) supporters.”
Somehow the Trayvon Martin case warranted hours of coverage, but an alleged stationary serial killer operating in the political left’s favorite vocation is passé. The media created a new race of human, the “white Hispanic,” in the Martin case to give it a racial spin it could use to stoke racism. But Gosnell is black, as were most of his victims. The media, filled with liberal progressives, doesn’t care about black victims of crime unless they were victims of a white criminal. How else can you explain the relative silence over the murders in Chicago?
The media has devolved human life into a stereotype template – white criminal, minority victim = news; white criminal, multiple adult or child victims = news; female, attractive, large-breasted, white criminal or victim = news; any other configuration of victim or perp, unless they’re famous, isn’t news.
How many stories of busty blondes disappearing have we heard of? Are black women never abducted? Of course they are. But the racist media doesn’t care. This can be applied to any sort of crime. If it doesn’t fit the template, if it doesn’t look like a good “business decision” to cover, then crickets.
There is a genocide happening in the black community. Not only do half of all pregnancies end in abortion, the majority of gang- and drug-related murders in this country are of young black men, by young black men. Yet few politicians bother to address this slaughter because the media doesn’t deem it newsworthy. Or vice versa. The chicken-and-egg argument doesn’t matter here. The result is the same – young people dying unnecessarily.
Toobin is fine with this. It’s a “business decision” to him, and anyone who wants to talk about crimes other than those deemed worthy by him and his ilk, merely want to “gin up supporters.”
So why what Kermit Gosnell is accused of isn’t news to those who decide what warrants news is fairly simple: 1) What he did was committed in the name of abortion, and everyone in the media knows the only gruesome and newsworthy acts involving abortion are committed by those who oppose it; And 2) What he did – killing poor black people in as gruesome a way as is imaginable – leaves the Toobins of the world less “interested.”
It’s that mindset that separates crimes into levels of priority based on the leftist mainstream media’s perceived importance of the victims. In the big scheme of things, that might be the most disgusting part of the whole story.
...”On Friday, the media began to face the music. Anderson Cooper did the first 15 minutes of his show on these atrocities. But one of his guests, CNN legal analyst Jeffery Toobin, tried to explain the media’s lack of interest in the case when he said, “It’s a business decision. We are not operating with a political agenda here. We pick stories, by and large, for reasons that we think people will be interested. I don’t think we’re covering this up. So I just think that’s a way of ginning up their (pro-life groups) supporters.”...
I do not know who Jeffery Toobin is, but his statement is one of the most frightening I have seen in forever. He is saying that people are not interested in the murder of children. Does that not make the hair stand right up on your head?! This state run media is as dangerous as any dictatorial state run media has ever been and this article states it well. Surely there are some reporters who are horrified by what is going on. Thank you, Anderson Cooper for what you did in daring to discuss this. I am now a fan of yours. We are being denied the truth of what is taking place in our society because of a far left agenda which wants to enslave our people, and, it would seem, to kill at their pleasure, without the knowledge of the people, those they find inconvenient. I weep as I write this folks. I have “seen the lion and I have heard the owl.” I play beautiful music with a wonderful band..We give our earnings to programs which help children. We have worked hard in our lives. I was reared in poverty on a farm but I lived in a wonderful country which was moral and decent with opportunity for those who were willing to help themselves. The politicians on both sides knew and understood what our Constitution means. We trusted them, and then, the Godless and the corrupt, over time, took over. Once government begins to buy votes with entitlements, you are only a couple of generations away from dictatorship and acceptance of atrocities like this. The corrupt know this. After that, they divvy up tax payer money among their cronies, they confiscate, break promises, promote hedonism and immorality because that titillates those who love it and makes them feel free. They protect the violent among their voters because they need them to create the chaos which will keep decent people in line. Ultimately, they will do to others who are inconvenient what this monster whom they protect has done to those babies and their lap dog, evil, Godless media will keep that knowledge from the people as they condone the horror. It has happened before and it is happening before our very eyes on this beautiful Sunday morning in the greatest country which has ever been. And, at it’s core, it is all about power over people and money. I realize this cancer has come from long years of brainwashing in our academic institutions and from our government, but in the end, the lion’s share of the blame rests with a media which is just plain numb to the worst in mankind and they are stupid, too. Because when this country falls into total chaos, with a society groveling for food, they, too, will bear the consequences. They think they can stay above the fray, but it will not happen. This story breaks my heart and I know who is to blame. Life is short, folks, and there is a day of judgment, even though most in our media are Godless and do not believe. They will when their time comes.
David Carr (b. 1956), US Journalist. CNN "Reliable Sources", Sunday, August 10, 2008.
‘This was not an opportunity to address mental illness in this country and truly head off such disasters – that’s not all that compelling a story and nobody really has the answer – but it was time to talk gun grabbing. It was time to dust off all the old measures that never worked, all the “solutions” that never could move forward under the democratic process and try to use this tragedy to accomplish them.”....
Simply, and in fewer words, “Never let a good opportunity go to waste!”
I have heard of Jeffrey Tobin. At least the name sounds familiar. He works at CNN so what do you expect. I do not believe for one millisecond that the people are not interested in the slaughter of innocent children, I say slaughter because what that creep in Philadelphia did is not just murder. He slaughters these innocent babies. But going on, it is the left wing media who does not want the people to know about these slaughter. Fox news has been talking about the trial but none of the other cable networks and regular networks completely ignored it
It’s hard to blame politicians. They can’t help themselves; they can’t let a good crisis go to waste. But we ought to be able to expect a little more from our media – something a little closer to real life than the political agenda of far-left members of Congress.
The voice of the low information voter. I’m serious. Here is this guy, he knows the score, but he cannot connect the dots. For those of you keeping score, the dots are as follows:
- The First Amendment does not require journalists to be objective. The words “objective” or “fair” appear nowhere in the Constitution.
- To the contrary, the First Amendment limits the ability of the government to regulate journalists (it does not completely eliminate that ability, unless you think that enforcing laws against libel is unconstitutional).
- It is impossible to require that the news be balanced; nobody would have the time or patience for truly comprehensive journalism. Anyway, if you emphasize everything, you actually do not emphasize anything.
- It follows that the First Amendment protects a journalist who commits politics. Nobody should be surprised when that actually happens. But there is no reason to expect that a journalist who commits politics will always, or even ever, explicitly admit that that is what s/he is doing. In the present instance, journalism has been committing politics by saying nothing about a case which, were slight details changed, would be an enormous dustup.
- There is such a thing as “national” journalism because there are wire services. But “national” journalism based on wire services is homogenous journalism. The primary wire service in America is the Associated Press. Note well the term, “Associated.” The members of the AP are not independent.
- People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (Book I, Ch 10)
- The AP newswire is a virtual meeting of all major American journalism institutions. Therefore AP journalism is, after a Century and a half of continual “meeting,” little else but " a conspiracy against the public.”
- AP journalism promotes AP journalism, labeling itself “objective” and libeling anyone who threatens journalism’s self-image by earning a good public opinion by actually doing things which the public needs. Journalism is criticism and second guessing. Journalism assigns positive labels to those who join in their criticism of those who accomplish things, and negative labels to those who defend them.
I totally agree. Thank you for posting.
“We’ll tell you what you need to know, citizen”.
Meanwhile, the present the Jody Arias Saga with about 6 hours TV time a day, a meaningless diversion to divert the attention of the rubes.
But not one minute can they spare to cover Benghazi coverups, Fast & Furious etc.
Any they nearly got away with it, though they're still working as hard as they can to play it down, especially the part about the results of abortions being dead babies.
Mark
When it involves abortion, leftists believe anything goes. The only thing that matters is the end result. Dead baby. The method simply does not matter to them, why would any leftist care about how he killed them?
If it had been an abortionist killing the kids at Sandy Hook the media would have covered that up too.
The Sandy Hook tragedy had mothers who loved their children and six heroes, all women...teachers who died trying to protect the children.
There are no heroes in the abortion industry - no-one to defend the defenseless...babies who cannot run & hide.
For whatever reason - there are no fathers to protect their unborn from the abortion massacres.
Toobin isn't such a smart guy, he tipped his hand here and revealed exactly what is foremost in his and his fellow leftwing journalists' minds - and why they chose to cover this story up.
Restatng the obvious, the leftwing media chooses what is 'news' based upon the political effect their reporting will have.
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