[Trigger warning for mention of rape] Gang Rape Story Lacked Balance

Follow-up to this blog post: [Trigger warning for mention of rape] Tell the New York Times to Apologize for Blaming a Child for Her Gang Rape (petition)

The NYTimes blog has attempted an “apology” for its coverage of the gang-rape story in Texas. The original story was littered with victim-blaming and sympathy for the perpetrators. Here is a link to the petition for an apology on change.org.

The story quickly climbed The Times’s “most emailed” list but not just because of the sensational facts of the crime involved. “Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town,” published on Tuesday, reported the gang rape by 18 boys and men of an 11-year-old girl in the East Texas town of Cleveland.

The viral distribution of the story was, at least in part, because of the intense outrage it inspired among readers who thought the piece pilloried the victim.

My assessment is that the outrage is understandable. The story dealt with a hideous crime but addressed concerns about the ruined lives of the perpetrators without acknowledging the obvious: concern for the victim.

While the story appeared to focus on the community’s reaction to the crime, it was not enough to simply report that the community is principally concerned about the boys and men involved – as this story seems to do. If indeed that is the only sentiment to be found in this community – and I find that very hard to believe – it becomes important to report on that as well by seeking out voices of professional authorities or dissenting community members who will at least address, and not ignore, the plight of the young girl involved.

From Shelby Knox of change.org:

Brisbane’s blog post is not an apology, nor does it go far enough in explaining that “balance” does not mean giving equal weight and space to the concerns of the child rape victim and those of her alleged rapists. In addition, as the blog post only appeared online, we have yet to see whether a condemnation of the coverage will also appear in his regular Sunday column (or anywhere) in the paper. But as the public editor of the New York Times holds a respected place in the journalism community, his words sent a message to reporters at publications across the country that victim-blaming is never appropriate.

I completely agree that this “apology” is unacceptable. To claim that the piece ‘lacked balance’ is patronising and minimising. Instead of focusing on a this lack of balance, the blog piece would have been better served to be as outraged as 1000s of readers at the amount of victim-blaming which went on in the original piece. The victim-blaming was discussed but only in a tokenistic and defensive ‘we didn’t mean it like that, honest’ way. Is the next piece going to tell us that we’re all too sensitive and that we should just lighten up? Quite possibly.

[Trigger warning for mention of rape] Tell the New York Times to Apologize for Blaming a Child for Her Gang Rape (petition)

It is immensely important that the NYTimes apologies for this article. In the few short paragraphs of the piece, the paper sympathised with the numerous perpetrators of this horrific gang-rape (“they will have to live with this for the rest of their lives”) and firmly placed the blame for the rapes in the 11-year-old victim (“she wore make-up and dressed as if she was older”). Please sign this petition.

On March 8th the New York Times published a story by James C. McKinley Jr. titled “Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town.” The assault it described was, indeed, heinous: an 11-year-old was gang raped in an abandoned trailer house by as many as 18 men, with suspects ranging in age from middle school students to a 27-year-old. The attack came to light because several of the suspects took cell phone video of the assault.

Also appalling was the way in which New York Times reporter James C. McKinley reported the victim blaming sentiments of members of the Texas community in which the rape occurred as truth. McKinley insinuated the young woman had it coming, writing, “They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.”

Mr. McKinley also gave ink to community members who are more concerned about the impact raping a child will have on the suspects than being raped will have on the young victim. Mr. McKinley quoted Sheila Harrison as saying, ““These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

1 in 4 American women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. A culture that blames victims for being raped – for what they were wearing, where they were, and who they were with – rather than blaming the rapist is a culture that tacitly condones rape. A society that is more concerned with how being held accountable for rape will impact the perpetrator than for the well being of the victim is a society that doesn’t take rape seriously.

The New York Times contributed to this dangerous culture by publishing this article by Mr. McKinley without asking him to edit out his and community members’ editorial victim blaming.

Tell the New York Times to issue a published apology for their coverage of this incident and publish an editorial from a victim’s rights expert on how victim blaming in the media contributes to the prevalance of sexual assault. No one ever deserves to be raped and no victim should ever be told it was their fault. New York Times, we expect better. We demand better.

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Purple

I’ve been wrapped up in a white duvet all day wondering what’s going on with my back, stomach, head, legs and and arms (I think I have food poisoning), so the only purple I can attest to wearing is one of the stripes on my pyjamas. But I am there in every other way.

No, wearing purple today is not going to go a terribly long way to decreasing homophobia and discrimination, and no, it’s not going to going to instantaneously end anti-LGBT bullying, but what it will do is raise awareness of the problem. And it is a problem. So today, just one day, shut the fuck up with your prejudices, think of someone other than yourself, and remember that there are some very vulnerable LGBT youth who need more of your support and less of your hatred.

Also, here and here.

Tumblr

Shocking neglect of this place. Mostly because I’m here on tumblr all the time. Comments enabled and all so check it out, if you please.

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Shameful humiliation

I want to draw your attention to this. It’s a segment on a radio station in Yorkshire where the DJ dumps someone live on air on behalf of someone else. I’ve only listened to this one, and it was quite enough. I feel sick.

My friend B. wrote about but I won’t quote directly from her. My [shortened] version is this:

- A bloke called Craig writes a letter to a radio station to tell them that he’s found out that his girlfriend, Angie, to whom he was about to propose, gave her boss a blowjob at the Christmas party.

- Danny the DJ agrees to play a ‘little trick’ on Angie by phoning her pretending to be the jeweler where Craig bought the £2,000 engagement ring.

- The ‘jeweller’ asks to speak to Craig and then ‘lets slip’ to Angie that Craig is about to propose to her. He goes on to ask her how she feels about that. She’s delighted, she says, because she and Craig have a wonderful relationship and she can’t wait to get married and to start having babies.

- A lifetime later, after Danny’s cruelly joined in her excitement, he tells her that it’s a setup. He announces to her, shouting, that Craig knows what she’s done and that she’s now DUMPED! He also implicates her married boss somewhere along the way.

- This is greeted with pained silence on the other end of the phone.

- Danny then says something like, ‘You’re just a tart. We’re going to an ad-break’ and hangs up the phone.

It’s shocking.

The audio is here, if you care to listen. It’s really vile so I wouldn’t recommend it to the faint of heart. It’s called ‘DANNY DUMPS: ANGIE’ and it’s at the bottom of the listen again box.

Clearly this Danny is an cruel misogynistic fuckwit. The pleasure he derives from persecuting this poor girl is horrific. I don’t know if she did what she’s been accused of, but from listening to her, she’s clearly very innocent in many ways of the world.

This is one of the most shameful things I’ve heard in as long as I can remember, and I’m really rather speechless about it. I hope he gets run over by a bus on the way home. I really do.

P.S. I’m not condoning cheating in any form. But this… this is too much.

Television catchup

I caught up on some TV last night (that the housemate had kindly recorded for me).

First, there was the The Green Wing finale and special. I enjoyed it for the most part but it just went on forever. I normally prefer when they keep the story lines in the hospital so that all the characters can interact with each other, but in the special, they had several different story lines happening all over the place. Dr Statham was in Cornwall somewhere and he wasn’t nearly as funny as he used to be with his sidekick Boyce. Harriet et al staged some sort of coup in the office which was just dull, and even Guy wasn’t as hilariously arrogant and obnoxious as he usually is. I was delighted that it all ended happily, of course, but I think they could have reached a conclusion sooner and in a much funnier way. I’ll miss the old Green Wing though, it has to be said. And I’m very much crushing on this chap right now.

Then I watched This Life +10 which was wonderful. It, rather obviously, updated us on what the characters in The Life – Milly, Egg, Anna, Miles and Warren – have been doing in the ten years since they shared a house together. I won’t go into those details in case you haven’t watched it yet, but I will tell you that I was delighted to see that Miles is as arrogant, Anna as dysfunctional, Egg as lost, Milly as neurotic, and Warren as optimistic as ever. But they all seemed to be more vulnerable and less sure of themselves then they were ten years ago, so while they still had the same traits, they were less able to hide behind them as effectively as they once were. I also liked how it was filmed in the same casual way, with doors closing, papers rustling, people talking in the background etc. I really loved it.

This morning before I left the house, I watched the second half of an episode of Upstairs Downstairs (I love ITV3), which is a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning. The episode ended with Lord Bellamy dictating a message to Lady Bellamy which was to be sent to the ship she was sailing to America on, and it read:

‘April 1912, for the attention of Lady Bellamy, berth no. 41, HMS Titainic…’

ERK!!!!! Fantastic!