Industry publications and the news media pretty well ignored “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer,” an independent film which offered the details of the investigation and murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Despite the lack of press coverage, the film was the No. 1 indie film in the U.S. on its debut weekend in October, and No. 12 among all box office offerings. Produced by Phelim McAleer and his wife Ann McElhinney, the film was financed through an unprecedented crowdfunding campaign which raising $2.3 million in 45 days for the production. It also made $3.6 million at the box office.

This movie has defied Hollywood insiders once again. Since its release to DVD in February, “Gosnell” now leads online DVD sales on Amazon, and was the top seller at Walmart.com — eventually selling out altogether, according to Mr. McAleer.

“On Amazon we were beating ‘A Star is Born’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ even as they are basking in awards season publicity. It’s an amazing performance. It really shows there is a hunger for the truth out there,” Mr. McAleer tells Inside the Beltway.

This may be just the beginning, though. On Tuesday, the movie became available via video on demand through 18 major providers, including AT&T, Google Play, Xfinity, Fios, DIRECTV, Amazon, PlayStation, iTunes and Christian Cinema.

“It’s never been more important that the Gosnell movie has a wide audience The fake news media are ramping up their efforts to distort the truth. Did you see how they slandered and tried to destroy the lives of schoolboys attending the recent March for Life in Washington? The release of ‘Gosnell’ is a chance to show Hollywood and the mainstream media that their fake news and coverups won’t succeed,” the husband-wife team note in their message to customers.

WALL EFFECT: 90% DROP IN ILLEGALS

When media coverage gets murky over controversial issues and partisan arguments are many, it helps to look at the numbers. Such is the case with President Trump’s border wall.

This isn’t just a wall, though. This is a well thought out “border wall system” which incorporates a physical barrier, technology, personnel, and access roads — a strategy which incorporates a “barrier as a deterrent and impedance and denial feature, technology for detection and identification, personnel for apprehension, and access roads to cut down on response times,” this according to Republican members of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Well said. And now, here are the numbers which they have supplied.

The southwest border runs just under 2,000 miles of rough terrain including desert, mountains, and the Rio Grande; physical barriers exist on 654 miles of it. And the reality: sections of the border where fencing and walls have been built have fostered a huge and lasting decrease in illegal immigration.

They include the San Diego section — built in 1992, with a 92 percent drop in illegal traffic in the past 23 years. Then there’s the El Paso area, built in 1993 with a drop of 95 percent in 22 years; Tucson, built in 2000, with a drop of 90 percent over 15 years; and Yuma, build in 2005, where illegal traffic dropped 95 percent over nine years.

“It used to be that members of Congress could put country over party in the name of national security. But today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to even negotiate a compromise to deal with the crisis at our southwest border. Now is the time to make a down payment on border security by funding a border system that includes barriers, technology, personnel, and access roads. The border system is an all-of-the-above, pragmatic solution to a complex problem. I hope my Democratic colleagues will show up to negotiations in good faith, and resist the attempts of the far left to make them the party of open borders,” says Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican and the Committee on Homeland Security’s ranking member.

A FAR OFF SPECK

A presidential historian has made an interesting observation about the ongoing government shutdown, and the partisan impasse over the border wall:

“Americans equate ‘the federal government’ with the president — with any president,” points out Jeffery Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

“Thus, the longer their government appears dysfunctional, the worse it will be for the White House’s current occupant, who already holds some of the lowest approval records on record. Any talk that this will affect 2020, however, is premature. That remains a far-off speck in time compared to the myriad untold, or — like the Mueller report — predicted events the ensuing months will bring,” says Mr. Engel.

THAT COVINGTON COVERAGE

The broadcast networks were far more interested in covering the Covington Catholic High School controversy than the annual March for Life, says a study of the coverage that followed.

“Between Saturday evening and Monday morning, NBC, ABC and CBS devoted a stunning 19 minutes 5 seconds to falsely accusing teenagers who participated in the March for Life of racism following a confrontation with left-wing activists. That was after the broadcast networks only managed to provide a pathetic 58 seconds of coverage to Friday’s annual demonstration protesting the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing abortion,” wrote Kyle Drennen, a senior analyst for Newsbusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.

He found that the networks spent 19 times more airtime on the encounter between the students and American Indian activist Nathan Phillips than on the march, which drew hundreds of thousands of participants to the nation’s capital.

“When it comes to a conservative protest against abortion, year after year, the media have no interest in the story. However, when reporters see a chance to paint teenage participants of the demonstration as ‘racist,’ they are eager to seize on the narrative without actually having solid facts about what happened,” Mr. Drennen says.

POLL DU JOUR

• 74 percent of Hispanics expect to be financially better off in the next year.

• 71 percent say they are better off now than a year ago.

• 62 percent say it is a good time to buy “big ticket’ items.

• 59 percent expect “good times for the country as a whole” in 2019.

• 59 percent expect good times for the country as a whole in the next five years.

Source: A Florida Atlantic University College of Business survey of 700 Hispanic adults in the U.S. conducted Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2018 and released Monday.

• Murmurs and asides to [email protected]

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