George Zimmerman, left, and Trayvon Martin. (AP)
(CNSNews.com) – Some of the most elite and influential news outlets in the United States gave far more coverage to the George Zimmerman murder trial in its first week than they did to the Kermit Gosnell murder trial in its first week, revealing a coverage disparity of 40.6 to 1, or the equivalent of giving Zimmerman 3,960% more coverage than Gosnell.
A Nexis news search of certain media at the national level – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, New York Times, Washington Post – in the first seven days of each trial, including the day before each trial started, showed there were 5 stories on the Gosnell case and 203 on the Zimmerman case.
These reports included full, extensive stories as well as shorter reports and mentions of the cases.
The abortionist Kermit Gosnell was charged with 8 counts of murder and was eventually convicted of 4 counts: 1 woman, and 3 babies that had been born alive during abortions and then had their spinal cords snipped with scissors. The grand jury report stated there likely were “hundreds” of other baby victims over the 40-plus years that Gosnell did abortions.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, convicted of 4 counts of murder, 3 of which involved killing babies born alive by snipping their spinal cords with scissors at his abortion office in West Philadelphia, Pa. (AP)
George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator for a community in Sanford, Fla., shot and killed Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, and he is charged with the second-degree murder of Martin.
In Nexis, a search was done for the combined words “Kermit Gosnell” and “abortion” and “trial” and “Philadelphia” for the period March 17 through March 23, 2013, which includes the day before the trial started.
The search showed that the New York Times ran one story on Mar. 19 on page A17. CNN did one story on The Lead with Jake Tapper show; Fox ran three stories, two on Special Report and one on The O’Reilly Factor. The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC did not run a story on Gosnell in the first week of the trial.
For the first week of the Zimmerman trial – June 23 through June 29, 2013 – a Nexis search was done for the combined words “George Zimmerman” and “Trayvon Martin” and “trial” and “Sanford” and “murder.”
The search showed the following reports or mentions about the Zimmerman trial by media outlet:
New York Times: 6
Washington Post: 4
CNN Newswire: 29
CNN International: 2
CNN: 112
FOX: 9
MSNBC: 6
ABC: 12
CBS: 11
NBC: 12
Total: 203 stories
Source material can be found at this site.
