CSotD: Four legs good, two legs better
Skip to comments
Joel Pett makes the connection that has seemingly eluded other cartoonists. The use of Kermit Gosnell as an argument against keeping abortion legal boggles the mind.
To start with, the fact that he was on trial at all shows that what he was accused of doing was outside the law, and now his conviction underlines the fact.
And the bizarre notion that the "mainstream media" was ignoring the Gosnell trial rests on assertions that, without the full support of sheep-like, unquestioning illogic and gullibility, are laughably wrongheaded.
The claim falls apart when you look at the reach of Fox News and realize that they are very much a part of the "Mainstream Media," despite their contradictory claims to represent a large proportion of Americans and yet be outside the mainstream.
Fox's cable news network is the top rated cable network, and, while it may be because it's the only network serving those who demand a full-on paranoid, delusional view of the news, it's still getting the best numbers.
Granted, that's not the same as attracting a majority of all viewers. But you can bet they don't whine to potential advertisers about the size of their slice of the pie.
And beyond its cable channel, Fox has 25 owned-and-operated local TV stations and about 185 affiliate stations. By comparison, ABC has eight O&Os and 200 affiliates, CBS has 14 O&Os and "nearly 200" affiliates and NBC has 10 O&Os and "nearly 200" affiliates. Looks like parity to me.
For Fox to complain about being overshadowed by the "mainstream" networks is like the New York Jets complaining that they are facing a three-to-one disadvantage in their division.
There are many reasons the Jets haven't fulfilled Rex Ryan's promises of a berth in the Super Bowl, but being outnumbered is not one of them.
Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh's show is heard on nearly 590 radio stations, plus Armed Forces Radio. Glen Beck is on about 400 stations.
There may have been a time when the rightwing viewpoint was under-represented, but, if so, that moment has passed.
"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No
question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures
outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to
man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Not only does the "poor victims" argument rely on a paranoid, mathematically-challenged view of commercial media, but on a fundamental misreading of how it operates.
There is a difference between a story being "not reported" and a story being "suppressed" or "ignored."
The Gosnell story was, indeed, being reported within the region where it was happening.
It was below the national radar in large part because, not only were the other media sources not picking up on it, but neither were Fox, Limbaugh, Beck and the rest of their segment. Once the rightwing brought it to the forefront, it spiked on Google News and the remainder of the media picked up on it.
That's not called "revealing a media coverup." It's called "getting a scoop," or, in less flamboyant terms, "doing your job." Maybe the others missed it. What's your excuse, Fox?
Of course, calling it a scoop would suggest triumphing in fair competition and would undermine the "victim" mentality that keeps listeners from consulting other sources for alternative explanations of what's going on in the world.
Only we can tell you the truth. The others — the Mainstream Media — are part of the conspiracy, and are instructed by their overlords to lie.
So, from the general to the specific:
Specifically, it's Fox and the other rightwing media that should have been suppressing the Gosnell story if anyone did, because it serves the agenda of those who would keep abortion "legal, safe and rare."
I guess maybe you have to be over 50 to get it.
The younger crowd have heard about coathangers, and, yes, not only did it happen anecdotally, but I knew of a case within my own social circle, and she ended up in the emergency room with massive bleeding.
But that was only one desperate solution to a desperate situation in the days before Roe v Wade.
For girls who could confide in their parents, the more well-connected could go to their family doctor for a D&C, an outpatient procedure that was fully legal, except for the lack of candor in recording why it was performed.
For the rest, for those who didn't have parents they could talk to about such things, and a family doctor with a sense of personal loyalty and discretion, there were the back-alley butchers.
The Kermit Gosnells.
They were plentiful, and it wasn't that they invariably murdered or mutilated their clientele, any more than every drunk driver ends up wrapped around a lamp post every trip. But statistical probability does tend to catch up eventually.
And with no legal line between a safe, early abortion and a grotesque late term one, the back-alley abortionists were willing to do whatever the customer wanted, regardless of what it amounted to or how it turned out.
As in the case of Gosnell, their facilities were not always well-kept and germ-free, but, as his case illustrates, there were plenty of serious health risks simply in what they were willing to do.
Which, it must once more be said, is not legal today, even as safe, early abortions are.
To hold up the Gosnell case as an example makes perfect sense, if the lesson you are attempting to drive home is that we must never, ever go back to the horrors of the past, when Kermit Gosnells could be found in every city, catering to poor women and timorous co-eds.
What is particularly bizarre about this whole line of argument is that it comes from the same people who say that, if you restrict guns, it will empower criminals, that only decent, law-abiding people would ever give up their guns and so you shouldn't ask for background checks or waiting periods or restrict the types of guns or related equipment people can own.
Yet they make the argument that laws against the termination of pregnancy will be effective.
And their loyal followers nod and baa in chorus: "Four legs good, two legs better!"
Comments 6
Comments are closed.