People Magazine Celebrated Planned Parenthood, But Leads Outrage Over Cecil the 'Lion King'

August 8th, 2015 5:37 PM

Back in February, People magazine devoted a “Why I Care” feature to celebrating Planned Parenthood and one of its most fervent Hollywood backers, Lena Dunham, who said: “What I love about Planned Parenthood is it is focused on destigmatizing abortion and birth control.” They haven’t covered the abortion giant since the grotesque exposes of their baby-parts business started leaking out.

But the newest edition of the magazine (dated August 17) carried an article on “Remembering Cecil” headlined “THE KILLING OF A LION KING: As a Minnesota dentist defends his hunt, Zimbabwe calls for his return to face justice.”

The Zimbabweans cheer the death of lions and mock Westerners who confuse Cecil with a cartoon Simba. But People was deeply in the Hollywood tank on this one. They listed quotes of “Celebrity Outrage.”

It began with ABC latenight host Jimmy Kimmel, from his show: “We can show the world that not all Americans are like this jackhole,” he said “in a choked-up plea for donations to a wildlife group.” Then we were presented the tweets:

Cara Delevingne [who?]: “#WalterPalmer is a poor excuse of a human being!”

Debra Messing: “I went them to take his citizenship away. I’m ashamed and horrified.”

Ricky Gervais: “It’s not for food. It’s not the shooting, or tin cans would do. It must just be the thrill of killing. Mental.”

Olivia Wilde: “[If Palmer had known the lion was famous] he would never have murdered it without asking for a selfie first.”

It's probably not surprising these celebs love animals more than some human lives. Gervais celebrated the killing of bullfighters ("My kinda justice") on Twitter and in 2012, Wilde tweeted at Romney's defunding promise of Planned Parenthood "BACK THE F OFF MY RIGHTS, WILLARD." (That is Romney's birth name, if you missed the Al Sharpton teasing that year.)

On the cover were the words "Justice for Cecil: What Will Happen to His Killer." They cheered on the Internet mob now closing the dentist’s practice, now “In The Crosshairs.”

Internet attacks caused Palmer’s dental practice’s website to be shut down as animal-rights activists gathered outside his shuttered office in Bloomington, Minn. “I feel absolutely sick to know the thousands of dollars my family has paid him over the years has gone to fund animal-killing vacations,” says a longtime patient. “We will be looking for a new dentist.”

People reporter Jeff Truesdell huffed and puffed about the possibility of extraditing the dentist, before concluding a prosecution would be “pretty difficult.” So “That leaves Cecil’s death as a teachable moment.”

“Cecil was glorious,” says David Macdonald of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Unit, which had tracked the 213-year-old since 2008 and is watching Cecil’s cubs, now vulnerable to any dominant male lion who steps in.”

But People can’t find a sympathetic sentence or any “celebrity outrage” for the human cubs who are vulnerable to the dismemberment and parts-for-sale business at Planned Parenthood.