Brent Bozell and Tim Graham’s Jan. 25 column give a prominent plug to Phelim McAleer’s “new book titled ‘Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer.'” They don’t mention that the plug is part of a longtime PR campaign for McAleer’s anti-Gosnell work that McAleer may or may not be paying Bozell’s Media Research Center to do.
Much the column, though, is dedicated to re-litigating the Gosnell case, with Bozell and Graham explicitly (and dishonestly) portraying the rogue abortion doctor as exactly the same as every other abortion practitioner: “This monster chose to kill. He is the face of the abortion doctor. His story peels back the onion on this ghastly practice.”
Bozell and Graham also pushed the right-wing line that the “national media” ignored the story, actually claiming at one point: “In the last two years, the big three networks devoted more than 75 minutes to the rape allegations against Bill Cosby. He killed no one.”
But the two ignored that even right-wing media ignored the Gosnell story for a while too. The right-leaning New York Post hypocritically bashed media for ignoring Gosnell’s trial despite the fact that the Post itself couldn’t be bothered to cover it. Bozell and Graham are apparently giving the Post a pass for that, just like it stayed silent about the Post running nude pictures of Melania Trump. As a friendly media outlet that’s a sister to its beloved Fox News, the Post gets protection from the MRC.
And as Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum showed, right-wing media in general couldn’t be bothered to cover the trial — devoting much less time to the trial itself than to manufactured outrage that other media outlets weren’t covering it — right-wingers’ concern over Gosnell is more about working the refs and exploiting the issue for their anti-abortion crusade than it is about, say, justice for Gosnell’s victims.
(Surprisingly, Bozell and Graham aren’t being totally hypocritical here; its “news” division, CNSNews.com, did send someone to cover Gosnell’s trial.)
That’s the tone Bozell and Graham take here. They rant that “The national media were barely curious” about Gosnell and “When Dr. Gosnell went to trial in 2013, again the national media couldn’t be budged to cover the outrage.” They do grudgingly concede, however, that NPR covered the Gosnell story as early as 2010.
The thing to remember about Bozell and Graham’s column, though, is that it’s in (paid?) service to Phelim McAleer. It’s an advertisement presented as an op-ed. The fact that they refuse to come clear on that undercuts any integrity they claim to have.