The NY Times Selective Moral Outrage

James Taranto pointed out this comparison on Twitter earlier today. Here’s Andrew Rosenthal, editor of the NY Times editorial page on Jerry Sandusky last November [emphasis added]:

The mother of one of the victims told The Harrisburg Patriot-Newsthat she didn’t “even have the words to talk about the betrayal I feel.”

I do. Every single adult who knew of these attacks was under a moral, ethical and legal obligation to try to stop them.

The correct reaction on the part of the graduate assistant, MikeMcQueary, would have been to shove Mr. Sandusky off of the boy. Heshould have seen to it that the boy was clothed and felt protected andthen called 911…

Nobody seems to have worried about the boys in this horror story,only about Mr. Paterno’s cherished football program. According to thegrand jury report, officials at Penn State at a whole variety of levelslet down the victims and failed to do their duty to decency and the law.

There’s been a lot said in the last couple of days about how theserevelations have tarnished Mr. Paterno’s successes as a coach. That’skind of beside the point, isn’t it? This is bigger than football.

On the Sandusky case, Rosenthal mentioned the grand jury report twice. He said everyone involved failed in their “duty to decency and the law.” He wishes someone had physically intervened, shoved people. He laments they were too interested in protecting the football program to do so. Now here’s his take on Gosnell:

If Kermit Gosnell is found guilty of the appalling crimes with which he is charged, he should go to jail for the rest of his life.

But the effort to use this case to “prove” that abortion is wrong, iswrongheaded. If anything, the case highlights the need for safe,affordable and available women’s reproductive health care…

…anti-abortion forces have been alarmingly successful in restrictingwomen’s access to reproductive health services, including birth control,cancer screening and other services. That is the real issue.

No mention of the disturbing grand jury report. No desire to physically protect the children and women allegedly murdered there. No denouncing the moral failure of every adult who should have intervened. Suddenly the “real issue” is protecting abortion rights, not protecting children.

Rosenthal has become one of the people he earlier decried, adults who puts something they are personally invested in before the safety of children.