Although the bombing of the Boston Marathon rightfully commanded much of the media's attention last week, the Big Three broadcast networks still found time for a host of superficial and inconsequential "news" stories while continuing to censor the horrific details of abortionist Kermit Gosnell's murder trial in Philadelphia.
According to a new analysis [1] from the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, Disney-owned ABC's total blackout on both Good Morning America and World News continues. NBC asked one single question during a pre-taped interview with President Obama on Wednesday's Today, which he evaded with no follow-up. Only CBS gave the story play during last Monday's This Morning, but has since completely dropped it. The prosecution rested on Thursday without a single mention on any of the broadcast networks' morning or evening programs.
Even after one of the most gruesome details of Gosnell's alleged crimes emerged last week - a baby who survived an abortion "swimming" in a toilet and "trying to get out" - the broadcast networks' deafening silence resumes.
Here are just a few of the "news" items the three broadcast networks found time to report instead:
■ ABC, which hasn't covered Gosnell once ever, revealed the earth-shattering revelation that Breakfast at Tiffany's heroine Holly Golightly's original name was "Connie Gustafson" on the April 17 edition of World News. The next night Diane Sawyer spent 32 seconds on Superman's 75th birthday.
■ NBC's Today closed its Sunday, April 21 broadcast with a segment about why the Internet loves cats, while Brian Williams took time on the April 18 edition of Nightly News to report that octogenarian actor Dick Van Dyke gets headaches when he lies down.
■ CBS This Morning found time on April 17 to show footage of Toronto's mayor bumping into a TV camera, but didn't bother to update their Gosnell reporting.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:
"The American people made it clear that the Gosnell trial is a major, national story, but the broadcast networks have plugged their ears and flipped them the bird. With the exception of CBS This Morning's reporting last Monday, the three broadcast networks are still putting their personal pro-abortion politics ahead of the national interest and censoring this story.
"NBC asked one question. That is not coverage. CBS ran stories for one morning. That is not coverage. And most shamefully, Disney-owned ABC refuses to cover Gosnell at all. If any organization should be condemning the butchering of children, surely it's the Walt Disney Company.
"The horror in Boston is worthy of extensive, in-depth coverage, but so is the maiming, mutilation and murder allegedly committed by Gosnell. Testimony that a baby who survived an abortion was 'swimming' in a toilet and 'trying to get out' is as gruesome as anything that happened in Boston, but the broadcast networks are censoring it because they want to protect abortion at all costs. Gosnell might as well have put his alleged victims in ovens. The Walt Disney Company doesn't care."
To schedule an interview with MRC President Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson, please contact Jeremy Little - jlittle@crcpublicrelations.com [2] (703)-683-5004