ABSTRACT
Gatekeeping belongs to realm of human agency and, without much of a stretch, is regularly subject to being second-guessed. It has been understood that news sources pressure journalists over their account, but there is another, more general territory of media criticism that has been much less explored within journalism studies. This chapter discusses the criminal trial of Kermit Gosnell, an abortion doctor on trial for the murder of one woman and seven newborns killed after being delivered alive. Gosnell story within a policy framework that would increase public scrutiny of abortion rights. The journalistic community draws on meta-journalistic discourse to establish itself as an interpretive community of shared understandings and to promote an image of its social utility. The Gosnell trial did receive national news coverage, leading to questions of how the press was pushed toward the story and what this tells us about politicized struggles surrounding gatekeeping.
