It was fine to dwell at length on the Newtown, Conn., shootings, because those could be blamed on the evil NRA. But writing about these dead innocents might be a political liability instead of a political asset. It might have been awkward for President Obama.
It’s also true that in our polarized — and moralistic — political culture, shouts of Have you no decency? are so common that it’s easy to assume that pretty much any such story is probably exaggerated and politicized. And the reports in the Gosnell case were ghoulish enough that it was probably especially easy to believe that they were exaggerated. Alas, that turned out not to be the case. It was no doubt Powers’ status as a liberal, and as a woman, that let her break through the wall of denial in a way that others might not have been able to.
Now the story has gotten some coverage on CNN (Jake Tapper broke the silence first) and other networks, and while it’ll never get the attention that national media lavished on politically convenient stories like Newtown, or the Trayvon Martin shooting, it is at least on the national radar.
But the difficulty that this story had in reaching that stage tells you a lot about the news media’s preferences and priorities –and blind spots.
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