According to LifeNews.com, 20 prominent conservative leaders have joined Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell in demanding that broadcast networks stop censoring coverage of the murder trial of abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell. 

Gosnell faces 43 criminal counts, including eight counts of murder. He is also charged with conspiracy, drug delivery resulting in death, infanticide, corruption of minors, evidence tampering, theft by deception, abuse of corpse, and corruption.

ABC, CBS, and NBC have largely ignored the trial and its gruesome details of the alleged murders of a patient and seven babies who had already been born alive during abortion procedures. These networks, according to MRC’s Culture and Media Institute, have not covered Gosnell once since his arrest in January of 2011.

In contrast, MRC reports that the three networks each covered the passage of the new abortion laws in North Dakota and Arkansas, referring to them pejoratively as “the most restrictive” in the country.

The conservative leaders responded to this lack of coverage of Gosnell’s trial with the following statement:

The horrific excesses of the abortion industry – exemplified by Gosnell and Planned Parenthood – are major, national news stories any way you look at them. But the pro-abortion liberal media are determined to hide them from the public. The media have a solemn duty to the American people to report the news, not just news that helps the positions they support. It’s unprofessional, it’s disgusting, and it’s inhuman… If the pro-life movement were involved in this type of insanity, there would be wall-to-wall coverage from every major news outlet. This cover-up is a national disgrace.

Among the leaders who signed the statement, in addition to Bozell, were David Bossie, president, Citizens United, Gary Bauer, president, American Values, Brian Burch, president, Catholic Vote, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president, Susan B. Anthony List, and Mario Lopez, president, Hispanic Leadership Fund.

Details of Gosnell’s trial, which began on March 18th, have been scarce in mainstream print news as well, with the New York Times covering the start of the trial but providing no coverage since that date.

David Freddoso of the Washington Examiner observes that Wall St. Journal columnist Peggy Noonan reported on Meet the Press last Sunday that coverage of Gosnell’s trial was “hard to find.”

Freddoso reports that the Gosnell trial has only received seven mentions on cable television since it began, one on CNN and six on Fox News. He makes the comparison to the Newtown tragedy in his comment, “Many have asked what kind of law they could pass to prevent the next Newtown. Few are writing about how to prevent the next Kermit Gosnell.”

Regarding the media “blackout,” Freddoso writes, “The American people are now like a jury, shielded from relevant information because judges (read: editors) decided it might prejudice their views- in this case, against lightly regulated abortionists.”

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air also asks why the “crime-obsessed media hasn’t taken an interest in this case.” After all, he says, “It has nearly everything that the media usually wants- horrific tales, serial killings, grotesque deliberation, even a villain who liked to make and keep trophies of his victims.”

According to Morrissey, the grand jury report on Gosnell is a “powerful indictment against the government health agencies that were supposed to protect women from butchers like Gosnell.” The report asserts that “even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety” than abortion clinics.

From the report:

Indeed, the department has shown an utter disregard both for the safety of women who seek treatment at abortion clinics and for the health of fetuses after they have become viable. State health officials have also shown a disregard for the laws the department is supposed to enforce. Most appalling of all, the Department of Health’s neglect of abortion patients’ safety and of Pennsylvania laws is clearly not inadvertent: It is by design…

State health officials knew that Gosnell and his clinic were offering unacceptable medical care to women and girls, yet DOH failed to take any action to stop the atrocities documented by this Grand Jury. These officials were far more protective of themselves when they testified before the Grand Jury. Even DOH lawyers, including the chief counsel, brought private attorneys with them – presumably at government expense.

In addition, back in January of 2011, Morrissey reported that the district attorney seemed to feel the need to defend his prosecution to the media:

“I am aware that abortion is a hot-button topic,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “But as District Attorney, my job is to carry out the law. A doctor who knowingly and systematically mistreats female patients, to the point that one of them dies in his so-called care, commits murder under the law. A doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies, who would survive with proper medical attention, is committing murder under the law.”

According to LifeNews.com, late-term abortionist Gosnell could face the death penalty if convicted and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

On Monday, the jury heard the testimony of a Delaware woman who worked at Gosnell’s abortion clinic. Lynda Williams of Wilmington said it was “standard procedure” to snip the necks of any babies who were born alive during the abortion procedure due to the administration of labor-inducing drugs.

Williams reportedly told how Gosnell taught her how to flip the body of the baby over and snip its neck with a pair of scissors. “It jumped, the arm,” she said, describing how one baby moved when she snipped the neck. Regarding her act, Williams said, when she testified earlier, “I only do what I’m told to do.”

Williams also said that she had seen Gosnell himself snip the necks of babies born alive at least 30 times.

In December of 2011, Gosnell’s wife Pearl pleaded guilty to assisting her husband at his Philadelphia abortion clinic when a woman died from a botched abortion and when he allegedly killed hundreds of babies who were born alive during abortion procedures.

The national media would like to censor the gruesome and horrific details of the Gosnell trial. Their silence makes them complicit in the campaign to keep the liberal abortion agenda looking “clean.”

On the other hand, the grieving Newtown families were sorely needed by the Obama administration to push its gun control agenda. The horrid details of the shooting-though only what were needed to be revealed to ensure the passage of laws that take guns away from law-abiding citizens-served a “higher” purpose.