Pro-life advocates including celebrities and politicians have used Twitter and Facebook to shame national media in the United States for not covering the trial of an abortionist whose clinic has been dubbed the “House of Horrors”.
Pro-life groups decided to use social media as a platform for people to voice their frustrations over the mainstream media’s decision not to cover the trial.
Abortionist Kermit Gosnell, 72, faces seven counts of first-degree murder for allegedly killing babies who were born alive, and one count of third-degree murder for the death of Karnamaya Monger, a 41-year-old refugee who died from a Demerol overdose.
According to the prosecution, before the death of Monger, Gosnell had performed more than 200 illegal late-term abortions.
Gosnell’s employees testified that he would order them to cut the babies’ spines or behead the babies to “ensure fetal demise” if he didn’t do it himself.
The murder trial began in Philadelphia in March, but until the social media campaign began there had been no mentions of it on NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS Newshour. CNN and National Public Radio had each mentioned it once.
Pro-life advocates Bryan Kemper, youth director of Priests for Life, and Andy Moore of AbortionWiki, came up with the idea of using the Twitter hashtag #Gosnell trending on social media by asking participants to post details about the Gosnell trial to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and contact the media to ask them why they were not covering the case.
“We ramped up the efforts … and it seemed to take off like wildfire as major pro-life organisations started promoting it also,” said Kemper. “It was truly a show of unity in the pro-life movement.”
A Tweet by actress Patricia Heaton about the murder trial was retweeted by 5495 followers.
As a result of the TweetFest, the executive editor of the Washington Post, Martin Baron, said: “We believe the story is deserving of coverage by our own staff, and we intend to send a reporter for the resumption of the trial next week. In retrospect, we should have sent a reporter sooner.”
Sources:
Image: Philly Post
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