68 Percent of Voters Still Unaware of Gosnell Murder Story

Religion Today | Updated: Apr 26, 2013

68 Percent of Voters Still Unaware of Gosnell Murder Story

The news media are often criticized for spending too much time covering sensational crime stories, but not so in the Philadelphia murder trial of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who is accused of killing babies born alive in his abortion clinic. According to a new Fox News national poll, only about a third of voters say they are familiar with the Gosnell story (11 percent say "very" and 21 percent "somewhat" familiar). Most voters -- 68 percent -- are unfamiliar with it. But why has the Gosnell case received relatively little attention from the national press? According to the poll, 41 percent of voters think the lack of coverage is because of a pro-abortion-rights bias in the news media. Another 26 percent say the lack of coverage is because it is a local crime story, while 17 percent blame it on the gruesomeness of the story's details. Pro-life respondents (42 percent) are twice as likely as pro-choice respondents (22 percent) to be familiar with the case; likewise, nearly twice as many Republicans (43 percent) as Democrats (22 percent) say they know about it. Last Thursday, 72 members of Congress signed three separate letters to network news executives expressing their displeasure with the lack of news coverage and demanding the networks report on the story. Court resumes Monday with closing arguments.



68 Percent of Voters Still Unaware of Gosnell Murder Story