Sex crime reporting: You’re doing it wrong

First up:  hat tips to Fuck Politeness and Hoyden About Town.

As seen at that bastion of journalistic integrity, the Sydney Morning Herald:

A 13-year-old girl who was violated by seven teenage boys – some of them dressed in school uniforms – was told to “smile like you’re enjoying it” as they took turns with her in a public toilet cubicle, a court heard today.

The girl had vaginal and oral sex in several different Sydney locations with the boys in acts that one teenager taped on his mobile phone and later sent to his friends.

THE WORD YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS RAPE. THE WORD YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS RAPE. THE WORD YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS RAPE.

And please, let’s not even start with the “but LEGALLY they haven’t been convicted so they can’t actually CALL it rape, you’re just overreacting!!!” bullshit, because the victim? The RAPE victim? Is 13 years old. And was RAPED.

Congratulations, Harriet Alexander and the Sydney Morning Herald: you’re Officially Scum

And completing the quinella of idiocy, Greer McDonald of The Dominion Post:

A 25-year-old shearer, who forced a Dutch backpacker to watch a sexual attack on his girlfriend, pleaded guilty to nine charges in Invercargill District Court last week.

Yes, Greer. The real crime that took place here is that the man was forced to watch his girlfriend being sexually assaulted. And Dutch tourists are totally cancelling their trips to New Zealand because they, too, fear being forced to watch other people being sexually assaulted.

I mean, the real victim here is obviously the male backpacker! Think of the assault committed against his masculinity, watching another man taking liberties with his property girlfriend.

And that’s obviously the story that’s going to grab the audience’s attention, right? Because let’s face it, who cares if another woman was subjected to a sex attack? Bitch was probably asking for it, driving her stationwagon like a whore in her tramping gear.

Greer McDonald? You’re also Officially Scum.

And what the fuck with both of these stories being by female journos? Huh?

8 comments

  3. whyimbitter

    I think the first time I read an article in a newspaper that actually calls it rape, every single time, without ever using the word ‘sex’, I will fall over and die from shock.

  4. Fem

    This one is even more shocking.

    Headline: “Former Crusader fined over grope”

    Intro: ” Former Crusaders No 8 Jake Paringatai today saw the price he has paid for a clumsy drunken grope of a woman at a social function – $12,500 and most of his rugby career.”

    After a couple of pars about how much we should feel sorry for this poor man who is getting so much unwanted media attention we have this sentence:

    “Paringatai, who is now living in Australia, grabbed the bottom of a woman he did not know at a social function in Christchurch in May 2007.”

    Oh and then finally we get to the victim:

    “The 22-year-old woman felt a finger penetrate her vagina through two layers of clothing and Judge Neave described it as “humiliating and devastating ordeal”.”

    Umm how is that a grope? That’s sexual assault!

    Then there’s a little bit more about the victim [remember her?] talking about how she “She could not understand why it had happened. She did not know Paringatai and had never spoken to him. She had done nothing to invite his attention.”

    But then of course we go back to more about the offender who we should feel sorry for because he:

    “It had brought shame for Paringatai and his family, teammates, coaches, and the sport which had occupied him fulltime since he was 19 years-old.”

    And

    “Paringatai had unquestionably permanently lost the opportunity to represent New Zealand at rugby, Mr Eaton said.”

    “He had been forced to ply his trade overseas” – oh boo-fucking-hoo!

    It get’s worse. The judge does a bit of analysis about how this isn’t REALLY his fault since:

    “There was hypocrisy in the community being happy that these young men were paid large sums of money, and consistently telling them they were wonderful. It was hardly surprising if Paringatai ended up with an inflated idea of his own importance.”

    Oh yes, poor guy. It’s not his fault is it?

    The judge saved his/her best comment for last:

    “He accepted that Paringatai had never intended his actions to be as intrusive as they were.”

    Yeah I mean he only wanted to grope her, and he just accidentally sexually violated her!

  6. Pingback: Quickhit: “He’s just a rich rapist who has suffered enough” — Hoyden About Town
  7. Jewey

    y’r lsr. pck yr bttls. Hvng g t th jrn s cmpltly pntlss. Y’r nt dng yr bt fr th vctms s y thnk y r, y’r wstng y lf. s lrdy sd, y’r lsr.
    [QoT: Thanks for bringing a few classic troll arguments, Jewey. Try backing them up or even canning the gratuitous insults and who knows, one day your comments might get through!]