OPINION:
Reverence for life is a good thing, but some people who revere lion life have got their priorities on crooked. Human life is important, too. The Media Research Center observes that the television networks have devoted far more time to the death of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe than to revelations that Planned Parenthood has been dissecting aborted human babies and auctioning the baby parts to the highest bidders here in the United States.
More important than the number of minutes devoted to one story over another is the tone of the coverage. Cecil the lion was a favorite of tourists and the television coverage has been aimed at viewers who gorge on fluff and cotton candy. The Minnesota dentist and big-game hunter who shot Cecil has been depicted as a brutal and lawless killer, as if he hunts small children with his bow and arrow.
The government of Zimbabwe now wants to extradite the hunter-dentist, Walter James Palmer, to Zimbabwe “so that he can be made accountable.” It’s good to know that Zimbabwe, one of the most offensive of the African satrapies, has finally discovered accountability. Perhaps this awakening will spread to the Zimbabwean government. It’s not clear that Dr. Palmer knew he was violating the law in hunting Cecil the lion.
Cecil was apparently lured outside the protective reserve where he lived, and a professional guide and a farmer, hired to assist in the lion hunt, have been arrested. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, eager to get into a story that had “gone viral” on the Internet, says it is “deeply concerned” by the “tragedy” in far off Zimbabwe. The State Department declares that all Americans are “saddened” by the killing of the lion. Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night show talker, was moved close to tears when he condemned the dentist, and suggests that “sexual inadequacy” drove the hunter to kill Cecil.
Newt Gingrich, who must know better, says Dr. Palmer should be in jail. Hundreds of protesters have forced the dentist out of business. He went into hiding after receiving dozens of death threats, and social media web sites are abuzz with speculation that he might wind up in a Zimbabwean prison where he “will be treated in the way he deserves.” Perhaps, after an appropriate period of physical abuse, he will be thrown to Cecil’s relatives for their evening meal.
The worthies of television news, exhausted by their exhaustive coverage of Cecil the lion, have preserved their ignorance of Planned Parenthood’s pursuit of baby parts, and the determination of the politicians and the Obama administration to preserve federal funding for the organization. Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland and candidate for president, defends Planned Parenthood for the good it does — mammograms for poor women — when it is not selling baby parts. Planned Parenthood has hired a crisis management firm, and insists that it’s the victim of the unfair camera.
Big-game hunting is not for everyone. Hiking across the veldt is too much like slogging through the swamp in pursuit of a possum, and many people root for the big game, not the hunter. The death of Cecil the lion was unfortunate and sad, but it’s hardly the ineffable tragedy some people make it out to be. Tempting lions with a fresh carcass to lure them out of protected game preserves, like hunting birds on a baited field, is a perversion of sport. If Dr. Palmer is guilty of something illegal, everyone will soon know. It’s a shame that similar scrutiny cannot be applied to the abuses of cold and callous abortionists.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.