Imagine if ABC’s news shows covered the videos exposing Planned Parenthood 15 times more than they actually did. But, to ABC executives, a taxpayer-funded abortion giant harvesting aborted baby parts doesn’t warrant the same attention as the shooting of Cecil the Lion.
Since the release of the first Center for Medical Progress video on July 14, ABC covered the story in a mere 46 seconds. In contrast, ABC spent 12 minutes and 14 seconds on the story of Cecil, a famed African lion shot by an American dentist.
In other words, ABC covered Cecil 15 times more (almost 16 times more!) than the trafficking of baby parts by Planned Parenthood.
Not since July 16 has ABC glanced at the Planned Parenthood videos, which means the network completely censored the second video out July 21, the third video unveiled July 28, and the fourth video released July 30.
Since Tuesday night, every broadcast news show from ABC, NBC and CBS has poured minutes into the story about Cecil. Not so for the videos exposing Planned Parenthood.
During Good Morning America on July 31, ABC touted an “exclusive” about Cecil with an interview with an accompanying hunter’s lawyer. “Now it’s the dentist being hunted,” correspondent David Wright commented, “if only they could find him.”
Past ABC coverage included ABC co-anchor Lara Spencer highlighting the “very disturbing story” with “international outrage” on July 29 to conclude, “There are no words.”
While broadcast news shows covered Cecil the lion more in one day than they spent on the Planned Parenthood videos in two weeks, CBS and NBC did cover Planned Parenthood after the release of the fourth video.
Here’s the breakdown of time by network on Cecil:
ABC: 12 minutes, 14 seconds
NBC: 16 minutes, 54 seconds
CBS: 13 minutes, 51 seconds
Here’s the breakdown of time by network on the Planned Parenthood videos:
ABC: 46 seconds
NBC: 5 minutes, 12 seconds
CBS: 12 minutes, 4 seconds
In all, the networks have spent 42 minutes, 59 seconds on Cecil the Lion and 18 minutes, 2 seconds for Planned Parenthood videos.
Again, this is the death of one lion versus countless babies being sorted and picked apart.
According to MRC Latino, neither of the nation's leading Spanish-language television networks, Univision and Telemundo, have devoted any air time in their national morning and evening newscasts to the ongoing Planned Parenthood scandal.
Other Cecil Coverage
Aside from the network news, others chimed in on Cecil, from a teary-eyed Jimmy Kimmel to PETA’s death threat. “He needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged,” the animal-rights group’s press release read.
British journalist Piers Morgan went one step further, saying, “I will sell tickets for $50,000 to anyone who wants to come with me and track down fat, greedy, selfish, murderous businessmen like Dr Palmer,” Morgan wrote, before adding “Then we’d calmly walk over, skin him alive, cut his head from his neck, and took [sic] a bunch of photos of us all grinning inanely at his quivering flesh.”
The History: Planned Parenthood and Network Bias
After CMP released its first video, the liberal media raced to defend Planned Parenthood. In the first 9 hours and 30 minutes of news shows broadcast after the story broke, ABC, NBC and CBS, spent only 39 seconds on the first video. It took more than 24 hours before all three covered the story. In the week after the first video, the networks gave a mere 9 minutes and 11 seconds to the story (in contrast, the networks devoted more than three times that to the Susan G. Komen controversy, when the charity temporarily decided to defund the abortion giant).
Back to ABC, the network acted as if a threat posed to sharks by a beauty pageant contestant was twice as important as the Planned Parenthood story.
Similarly, the media stayed silent on the case of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell's trial, in which witnesses described baby abortion survivors “swimming" in toilets “to get out,” attracted a scant 12 – 15 reporters. Only after 56 days, multiple letters from members of the House of Representatives and a public outcry, did all three broadcast networks report on Gosnell.
