Re-post of an entry that NEEDS to be shared

[purerandomness]

Originally posted by lavenderfrost at ...WTF.

NYTimes, the bastion of quality reporting, reported on the gang-rape of an 11 year-old girl in Texas  that's led to charges against 18 high-school boys so far - all well and good so far, right?  Shit like this NEEDS publicity to raise awareness.

Only problem is, they repeated - without refutation or critical

Comments

[tooby3]

I am not condoning the act but as a journalist, I have to make clear that it is not the job of a reporter to provide refutation or critical commentary. It's actually against the code of ethics we all subscribe to. That is what columnists and talking heads on CNN (and the like) do and it's when journalists blur that line that the quality of it really deteriorates. That reporter, at least based on what is being shared here, is not taking sides, they're telling the story as it exists in that community. That is exactly what they're meant to do. They're job is to report on what's happening as it's happening. If by doing that, they expose repulsive behavior that makes YOU (and hopefully others) react, they're doing their job exactly right.

But the people who deserve to be at the receiving end of the petition are the people quoted in the story, not the reporter that shared their point of view.

[purerandomness]

I completely agree that journalists should just state the facts and let the readers decide (or not) to take action. When I linked to the NYT article, I expected to see millions of angry comments on a 'how dare they?' sort of bent, but there is nothing on that page.
I hope that there is some follow-up to this story in that the people who committed the crime are held accountable. I hope that holding this group of men/boys accountable would help to break stereotypes in that community because I find the comments made to the reporter awful and disheartening.
I think that passing along articles about inflammatory events (along with the original author's thoughts) may help to decrease a victim-blaming culture. That's probably asking too much, isn't it?

[tooby3]

It's just interesting to me: I mean much like it's truly bothersome that the perpetrators are being left off the hook while those in the community blame the victim and her mom for how they dressed / behaved, the people who started that petition are similarly leaving the community off the hook and blaming the new york times and its reporters for not taking sides

[lynda]

Wow. I'm pissed off beyond belief. It figures though - this state is full of crazy religious misogynistic nutjobs.

It's effing unbelievable that in 2011 people believe being a cock tease makes you worthy of rape or that rape is about sex and not power.

WHERE THE EFFING HELL WERE THOSE BOYS' PARENTS? What are THEIR mothers thinking?