The latest right wing hissy fit against the "liberal media"
by digby
So apparently the wingnuts are now in the midst of a full blown, all encompassing hissy fit over the "abortion doctor trial". Why they believe that a doctor being tried for murder and performing illegal abortions is an argument for making all abortions illegal eludes me, but logic isn't their strong suit. And anyway, they are making an emotional argument not a logical one: bad abortion doctor killed babies = all abortion doctors are killers. I think that conflating all this makes some sense to a certain subset of people who don't want to think about this and are more than happy to just take whatever side feels more socially comfortable.
Fox News and it satellites have managed to convince their nutball base that the mainstream media "blacked out" the story and the mainstream media has foolishly, once again, rolled over for their absurd claims. Don't believe it. In fact, it's been shown over and over again that while the right wing media ignored this story, it was the left that wrote about it in depth. Unfortunately, this ends up having real world ramifications as the right wing pursues this lurid tale and convinces the media to report it with a heightened "sensitivity" to conservative concerns --- and this alleged psychopath becomes the face of abortion in America.
Here is a long list of relevant stories about this hideous crime. I particularly recommend this one by a doctor who performs legal abortions and who explains why she is not in any way like this psycho Dr. Gosnell if he's proven to have done what they say he did. It's refreshingly open and above board.
But it occurs to me in reading them and watching the Fox News clowns have a pearl clutching party today, that we may have found a perfect Third Way, "common ground" let's-sing-kymbaaya moment: everyone thinks clinics that perform unsafe, dirty, cruel and barbaric illegal abortions are very, very bad. So let's agree to outlaw them. Oh wait ...
Update: Irin Carmen has been writing on the politics of all this and has found a very interesting angle that shows the anti-abortion right is as divided as the Republican right in general. This hissy fit is directed by the establishment right which wants to highlight icky baby killing while the hardcore grassroots types just want to keep fighting for bans in the states. I'm not convinced they actually work against each other, but if there are real divisions, it could present some opportunities to push them back.
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