How the Media Failed: The Steubenville Rape Verdict

March 18, 2013 by 8 Comments

I was 12 years old and in 7th grade when I decided I wanted to be a journalist. Not simply because I wanted to be ‘on TV’, but because I was fascinated by storytelling, by interviewing, by news, by the men and women who shared it every day, and who gave us the information we needed to know. I watched NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, The Today Show, 20/20…. anything I could.

In our 7th grade classroom, parents constructed a ‘set’, we were broken down into ‘news teams’ – each team with a day to deliver the news and each team member rotating their role in the newscast: news, sports, weather and ‘special’ stories.  I was fascinated by it all.

I grew up to be that journalist.  I covered politics and crime, military and immigration, school board debates and the havoc of mother nature.  I even tackled the really hard stuff – entertainment.  Through it all, my goal was always two-fold:  to be truthful and to be to be fair and honorable to both sides.

I will spare you the pictures of me with my anchor-bob haircut, but I will tell you this, some of the displays of ‘journalism’ I have seen in the past 24 hours made me alternately want to burst in to tears or throw something at my television for what I am witnessing of what was once a proud profession.

Few stories in the news have turned my stomach like those I have heard surrounding the rape of a 16 year old girl by two teenage football players from Steubenville, Ohio.  As if the crime itself wasn’t horrific enough, the attitudes of those involved – both the boys committing the crimes, taking pictures of the young girl and sharing them via social media, but the number of people who KNEW, SAW IT HAPPENING, HEARD ABOUT IT, or SAW THE PICTURES and yet did nothing is, in itself, beyond baffling.  What is happening to teenagers that the line between right and wrong is no longer discernible?  What is happening in HOMES that we, as parents, are raising children without a CONSCIENCE?

Fast forward to the trial and subsequent guilty verdict.  And the media’s reporting of that guilty verdict. My blood begins to boil anew.  I can’t remember a time that I have been so thoroughly disgusted by the media in general.

I wish I could say it was only CNN and Fox News… but I can’t.  NBC Nightly News made mention of it being a ‘cautionary tale’ for over sharing on the Internet… and I’ve lost count of the number of media outlets who have continued to focus on what Mays and Richmond have ‘lost’ as compared to what has been forever lost to the young victim.

Additionally, tonight, the latest reports – also disturbing, two more people charged – this time girls, for allegedly harassing the 16 year old victim via Facebook and Twitter.  Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine has also said a Grand Jury will convene in mid-April to see if other indictments might be made.

I am not a victim of rape.  I am sharing my thoughts because there are women who ARE victims who deserve better than this. I have seen many, many brave women who ARE victims of rape speaking out about the disservice this reporting is doing, not only to this young girl, but to rape victims in general. Do tell me your thoughts.  I want to know what you think.

 

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  • http://twitter.com/Anne_Hogan Anne Hogan

    To be perfectly honest, I’ve been avoiding coverage of this case because, like you, it makes me both cry and rage. I try to avoid swearing online, and one of my favorite teachers once said something along the lines of “swearing is for people with a limited vocabulary”. And yet, when I think about the news coverage of this case, the only words that come to mind would make a sailor blush.

  • Jo-Lynne Shane

    I havent watched the coverage but I’ve read a lot of reactions. I think there is a lot at play here, and I do think it is a cautionary tale about the power of social media. The rape is unconscionable, OF COURSE. But so are all the surrounding details.

    Yes, I am sickened and outraged – at all of it, and terrified for our kids, boys and girls, who are growing up in this world. I am not talking about the media coverage (as I haven’t seen it to speak to it) but the raising kids without a conscience… do you realize what kids are seeing these days in movies and on TV? The media has numbed their consciences with images that are far too intimate and graphic. Think of the prostitute scene in Les Mis… that is just an example. It is everywhere. And as we become numb to it, we allow our kids to see it and they become numb. This is something I’ve been meaning to write about, as everything I see lately makes me feel bombarded with graphic images and situations that are too much . . . even for ME, a 40-y/o woman. But these are kids. And they aren’t mature enough to handle it, their young minds and consciences are still developing. I don’t know the answer. It’s almost impossible to avoid. Even the pop songs on the radio are almost all openly about casual sex. I can hardly find a one that I want my kids to hear. but we listen to it… cuz they all do. And they’re catchy. I’m sorry, don’t mean to rant in your comments. But you bring up some very valid points, and I think we as parents need to seriously give some thought to what we allow our kids to see and hear. B/c this Steubenville mess? It’s horrifying on so many levels. And it could happen anywhere.

  • http://amyvernon.net/ AmyVernon

    Danielle – I, too, always wanted to be a journalist and was a newspaper reporter and editor for nearly 20 years. I covered crime, among many other beats. And the coverage of this story has infuriated me. In fact, I feel as if Jezebel, which is mostly aggregating coverage and doing commentary on that coverage, has done a better job than any other media in covering it.

    I have been unable to watch any coverage and it pisses me off so much.

  • http://ChristinaGleason.com/ Christina Gleason

    Thank you for sharing your reaction as a journalist. I am outraged as a woman (thankfully never a victim) and a mother (of a boy) that we, as a society, are in a place where people are sympathizing with rapists and threatening rape victims with further violence because of the consequences faced by the rapists. Thank you for sharing your professional opinion about the lack of journalistic integrity in the media’s handling of the guilty verdict. There is some sanity left in this world.

  • http://amandamagee.com amandamagee

    Masterfully done, Danielle. I understand emotion, I understand lamenting lost futures, but as you say there were other futures ruined as well. Reading the transcripts of the texts, it is pretty clear that these young men (and many others) were aware that what was done and what they did was wrong. The tragedy here is that their behavior and their lack of remorse or accountability is not isolated and the more people in our country look at their sentences, not their actions, as a shame, we are destined to repeat this. Imagine how many young women are going to stay quiet now.

    You know that I am a rape survivor, so perhaps I am biased, but as a mother I think that the idea of one day having someone say, “It would just be too hard to prove,” is not ok.

    Thank you for using your voice.

  • http://twitter.com/tanyaryno T A N Y A

    The horror of what is shown in the photographs and videos taken
    cannot be separated from the horror that the photographs and videos WERE
    taken – they were taken with the perpetrators posing & gloating
    over their helpless captive … they were made later in time as well …
    videos that include an extended tape of a friend of the attackers in
    drunken spasms of joy about just how ‘dead’ the girl looked as she was
    handed around. The Steubenville rapists had fun, and they broadcast
    that fun to the world and those around them celebrated it. They had no
    intention of taking the photos or videos down … they had no intention
    of stopping the storytelling or gloating. They honestly didn’t even
    seem to understand they were actually going to get punished for what
    they did, which is why they were crying in court … leading to the
    journalists absolutely absurd feelings of grief.

    What type of culture do we live in that a professional journalist felt compelled to
    grieve for the rapists, over the rape survivor, using her platform to exclaim that the ‘verdict’ ruined their promising lives?

    The verdict didn’t ‘ruin’ the ‘promising’ lives of Trent Mays & Ma’lik Richmond. Their decision to rape did.

  • Kathy P

    The story of two Ohio boys found guilty of rape is heartbreaking on so many levels. What is even more disturbing is that this is one case that has been publicized and based on the testimony of these teens, this same story has played out many times before. Mason is only 9 years old and we openly talk about respect, appropriateness, consent, right and wrong, and so much more (yes sex, and a definition of rape that is appropriate as I can make it at this young age). Why did these teens think they neededo take car keys away from a drinking boy, but not tell someone they were watching rape? Video taping rap? Sharing rape with their friends? My tears fall for all involved…I just can’t comprehend it. As far as the media goes, this is not journalism, this reporting is media, doing what the media needs to do to draw audiences and make money…you don’t like it? Make your voice heard! Have the tough talks with your kids – if you don’t, who will?

  • lfhpueblo

    Yep, I didn’t care hearing what the two boys and their families have lost. I think that wasn’t needed at all. I think what the young woman has lost is more important. I know her mother said it doesn’t define her daughter and that her daughter will move on and grow, but as a victim as a kid (12 yrs old.) I can tell you, it does hang onto way into adulthood. It causes you not to trust men for a super long time. It comes back to you on days in your life when you’re feeling vulnerable about something else. Those other girls taunting her, well we as women (and by the time you’re in high school you should be seeing yourself as a young respectable woman if you were taught right in the home) should be supportive and kind to one another. Yet, these girls were vicious to her and are just as bad in my opinion as the boys that raped that young woman. The media is falling down lately, they show things that are blatantly wrong, as something less than it is, in some cases as almost right. Society has changed, but not for the better and I think the media in all avenues of it are partly to blame (news, movies, sitcoms, etc.).