Notable & quotable: Where's the media?

“Again, I ask my colleagues and I ask the news media, ‘Why the blackout?’... Will America ever be told of the brutality of abortion?”

--Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J.

Smith is one of a handful of House Republicans who spoke out Thursday about the Gosnell trial and the lack of coverage in the media:

“Just hearing about this trial and quite frankly, I haven’t heard about it on TV, and if I weren’t informed about it leading up this special order, I wouldn’t know about the Gosnell trial, one that I think is really sickening just to hear the facts,” said Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican. [...]

The conservative Media Research Center has spearheaded a drive for more national coverage, noting that the three major broadcast networks have aired a combined zero minutes on the Gosnell trial, compared with more than 41 minutes on the firing of an abusive Rutgers University basketball coach.

“The media doesn’t want to talk about it,” said Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican. “Not NBC, CBS, ABC, CNBC, not Fox, and not the leaders of our nation, not the president.”

So far the networks have not responded to the MRC’s April 4 letter calling for media coverage of the trial.