Salon's Irin Carmon: Lone outlaw Kermit Gosnell really was just a local crime story

Don’t celebrate too soon, conservatives: you might have pressured the media into covering that “local crime story” out of Philadelphia, but Salon’s Irin Carmon reminds you that conservatives didn’t get what they “wanted” from #Gosnell. Kermit Gosnell might have been convicted of murdering three babies, but the case of this “lone outlaw” won’t have any national repercussions, politically speaking. In other words, the story might have blown up nationally, but clean, safe, affordable abortion mills around the nation will continue to hum along, providing their special brand of health care for women. You wasted your time.

@Salon @irincarmon I agree: local crime. No way for either party to spin Gosnell in a beneficial or partisan light.

— David David Kernan (@ddkernan) May 13, 2013

Thing is, isn’t every story just a local story? Something about Gosnell must have commanded the attention of the nation.

@adamsbaldwin @irincarmon By your standards, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a local crime story. Yet you wrote about him.

— Zaggs (@Zaggs) May 13, 2013

@IrinCarmon, would you like to comment on why you think Sandra Fluke trumps #Gosnell in national relevance?

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 13, 2013

@DavidSPJM because federal policy was being debated. In congress.

— Irin Carmon (@irin) May 13, 2013

That was a C-SPAN simulcast at best. Didn’t Rush Limbaugh have something to do with that story going national?

@irincarmon, Until #Gosnell is discussed in Congress in regards to a proposed law, you feel it is trumped by Fluke story?

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 13, 2013

@DavidSPJM trumped? Fluke was a campaign story last year. think I wrote about her twice. Already written at least 3 stories on gosnell.

— Irin Carmon (@irin) May 13, 2013

@irincarmon Fluke called a "slut" while campaigning for O-care; #Gosnell murdered hundreds due to no oversight. One is national, one isn't?

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 13, 2013

@irincarmon Trying to be objective: there is no logical basis behind your argument. Have to believe you just want #Gosnell to not matter.

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 13, 2013

That rhetorical point, essentially, is that “people who, whatever their individual feelings on abortion, think it should be safe and legal still think that.” Perhaps some defenders of late-term abortion had their doubts when hearing the gut-wrenching testimony about a screaming newborn being silenced — but that unpleasantness is behind us now, and with Gosnell tidily put away thanks to the justice system, it’s OK again to “see no evil.”

@irincarmon What? Headline: "still a local crime story". Article says Sarah Kliff wasn't wrong. But you meant to convey Gosnell IS national?

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 13, 2013

.@IrinCarmon It's a national story in virtually all respects. Amazing that you would even pen such a despicable piece. @DavidSPJM #ProLife

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 14, 2013

@irincarmon Let me know if you want to discuss this: http://t.co/qPh7EcoWrs. I think you know your piece today is indefensible. #gosnell

— David Steinberg (@realDSteinberg) May 14, 2013

So, what is it that conservatives really “wanted” that they didn’t get?

Curious: Have any conservatives called for the women who went to Gosnell's clinic for abortions to be prosecuted for murder?

— Irin Carmon (@irin) May 13, 2013

https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/334056127098679296