Sometimes we’re inclined to give the media a pass when they don’t cover something of interest to us. But too often, the media ignores stories that are actually relevant, and that also are shot through with profound human interest. The case of the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell is one such instance. It has all the components of an exceedingly captivating news story: a trial, deaths, babies, shock value, tragedy – a story that one would think would be front page news, perhaps potential Pulitzer material, immediate fodder for made-for-TV movies, a Law and Order episode or just of interest for the sheer human tragedy of it – and the media, the American mainstream media that advertises itself as reporting the news, has elected to ignore it. Those agencies, those corporate entities which pretend to be of value to Americans as the purveyors of news have decided for us that this story is not worthy of their time and our interest. Or is it as simple as that?
Why is it that those elements of this trial that would make for a joyous media frenzy even while informing Americans about this man’s activities have not motivated media coverage? The answer is simple: because this story runs counter to the media’s favored portrayal of one of the most deeply divisive issues of our day. The left, and their media propagandists, only ever portray abortion as merely “a woman’s choice,” that vacuuming a “mass of cells no bigger than a quarter” is really all that this “choice” is about, that even an Obama daughter should be able to undergo this trivial procedure to prevent a “mistake” from “punishing” her with a child, that any attempt to curb a woman’s “right” to such a trivial procedure is nothing more or less than an intolerable infringement of a woman’s right to do with “her own body” as she chooses. The media, in order to maintain this narrative, has no choice but to deliberately, and with full awareness of the depravity of its doing so, not allow the story of this trial to enter into the public view. This blackout, more than almost any other, is proof positive that our media, actively and with malice aforethought, decides what will and what will not advance a political narrative, and acts only in accordance with that decision. In this case, that narrative is that abortion is a benign choice for the good of all women, and infringement upon that right is evil. All alternative views must be silenced in order for this narrative to be swallowed; all dissent must be shouted down in any way possible because acknowledging the reality of screaming newborns being slaughtered would, of course, result in an outcry against this inhumane and indeed murderous practice, and Americans, even Democrats, would recoil from the horrors of policies that permit it.
So many of our liberal friends plead that the left and right “want the same things, we just disagree on how to get there.” What the media blackout on the Gosnell trial demonstrates is how utterly wrong and naïve this is. That there is even a question of whether to cover this slaughter of babies is indicative of how pervasive and critical the liberal need is to control every aspect of our public discourse in order to advance and protect their agenda. Without control over stories such as this – without the silencing of the reality of the actual consequences of our abortion laws and policies – the lie that abortion is merely “a woman’s right to choose” would be exposed. Total media control over this narrative is the sine qua non of this agenda, as it is with so many of their policies. The political entity that portrays itself as pro-choice (and it ONLY supports “choice” when it comes to ending a life, not in any other area of our lives) must in every way ensure that these “choices” are made with incomplete knowledge, knowing FULL WELL that more complete knowledge would only lead to horrified rejection of the policies that they advocate – in the name of choice. That coverage of such a trial is even a political issue demonstrates the depths of the depravity of our media and our culture. How could there ever even be a question of covering this story? For this simple reason: the truth about this trial would force people to realize that abortion policies are about more than a woman’s ”right to choose” how she wants to live her life; it is about more than whether she should opt not to be “punished” with a child; it is about more than the sterile vacuuming of a few cells that might impede a woman from realizing her own full potential. It is about the final, absolute, forever denying of all choices to that unborn child.
If rational people agree that murder is bad, and that life is good, then perhaps a rational discussion about abortion might begin by asking the questions, at what point does life begin, and at what point does the ending of a life become murder? The rejection of those very questions as invasive of a woman’s right to deal with her own body is a rejection of the reality that the case of Dr. Gosnell forces us to see. Are these lives, Yes or no? Is it OK to have ended them, Yes or no? The media’s deliberate hiding this from us reveals that they know what the answers to these questions will be. YES they are lives, NO it is not OK to have ended them. And if those are the answers to those questions, we have opened the Pandora’s Box that they know will reveal their inhumanity.
How do we deal with this? To be silent in the face of the media’s advocacy of an agenda is to be equally complicit. “Rage Against the Media” is an organization whose purpose is to fight for an objective media that reports rather than propagandizes. The Democrat Party is free to outline and advance its position on abortion, as is the Republican Party; we live, however, under the illusion that we have free expression of diverse views here in America; what we have, in fact, is a Fourth Estate which advocates for one side, rather than provide a forum for truth. Far from tolerance and diversity, what we used to know of as journalism is, instead, as intolerant of other views as one could imagine, and as monolithic in their stances and story-telling as the Soviet-run Pravda – but even worse, as our “journalists” spout the party line voluntarily and with joy in their hearts. Rage Against the Media fights back against this juggernaut by ensuring that the truth is told, by protests in social media as well as in the streets. To fight the blackout of the Gosnell trial, we are hosting a “facebook flashmob” where we swarm each mainstream media site in turn, according to a schedule, and post articles from alternative media sources, blog posts, photos and simply our outrage to show their other readers and viewers that there is something out there that is being hidden from them. Americans have a right to know the truth about the trial, about abortion, about the media’s decisions to, in fact, take away OUR CHOICE as readers by deciding for us what we should know. Media corruption is at the heart of so much of what ails this nation. If we want to right the wrongs, help us fight back.