Trust, the MSM and abortion

This is hilarious. Dave Weigel (a liberal “conservative” for the MSM) admits reporters are overwhelmingly Democratic (we knew that, 85%) but keeps saying that Amanda Marcotte (classic Limbaugh feminazi) and William Saletan (reliably Progressive technical writer) “covered” the grand jury report. Said report reads like the Grand Guignol, but let us see how Marcotte “covered” it (link at that article):

• “Abortion provider Dr. Kermit Gosnell and some of his staff members have been charged with eight counts of murder”
• “It was a little hard to find reliable information on Gosnell in the sea of anti-choice hysterics online”
• “Until more information is available, I would advise caution on jumping to conclusions about the charges of murder on the seven babies.”
• “The accusation resemble a fairly routine accusation leveled by anti-choicers at doctors”
• “it's possible that Gosnell is guilty of the charges, but one should take the history of this particular claim into account before jumping to conclusions.”
• “Gosnell ran a crappy clinic”
• “pro-choice community exerts quite a bit of effort trying to improve the quality of abortion care”
• “That shady abortion providers get patients at all is something we can safely blame the anti-choice movement for”

I like the word “safely” there. And finally this bit deserves quotation in full:

These particular charges involve late-term abortion, and all I could think upon reading the news story was, "I wish these women could have gone to Dr. George Tiller," because he was renowned for the quality of care provided at his Kansas clinic. But sadly, that wasn't even an option, even for those who could afford it, as Dr. Tiller's life was taken by an anti-choice extremist in 2009.

This is not journalism, this is inoculation: the careful, planned release of information designed to minimize the effect upon your side and maximize the damage to the other. Note the bringing up of Tiller: his murderer was convicted and imprisoned immediately. Gosnell was allowed to continue his horror show without even visits from the department of public health for years. Somehow, a solitary killer (and would-be terrorist with a previous conviction, how the hell was he on parole?), denounced as a coward and criminal by Operation Rescue, is worse than a storefront multiple murderer operating with government complicity.

Most doctors in this country are pro-choice, and many would like to provide abortion, but as Slate 's Emily Bazelon demonstrated in the New York Times , the stigma of doing so makes it that much harder to do

Yes, Amanda, and between journalism and erasing the visible signs of that stigma, we can see which you prefer.

Hat tip to Instapundit.