Crummy journalism: lies of omission

I suppose it’s no secret I don’t have a very high opinion of national big-name journalism. In fact, I’m collecting examples for a book on the subject of how to do crummy writing and biased reporting.

There is a weird inversion of what you expect here. The best journalism is done at the community level, and it’s often very good indeed. The worst is done on the national newspaper/network level, and it’s often very bad.

One reason that has been pointed out is the ideological homogeneity of most big newsrooms. Most journalism is produced in environments which are further left-of-center than the national norm. The conservative counterbalance over at FOX news and conservative papers and magazines tends towards homogeneity as well, but it’s worthy of note that FOX actually does have self-identified liberals on staff.

(National Review Online also has an admirable diversity of views, and a list of links to stories expressing contrary views as well. For real diversity in opinion editorials you can go to Creators syndicate where they post editorials grouped under ‘liberal opinion’ and ‘conservative opinion.’ Treat yourself to some of each. I adore Lenore Skenazy.)

Another reason is, we’ve become Hypersensitive Nation. There are things we cannot say in public, without serious risk to our careers. Indeed there is a growing cottage industry of catching, recording, and publishing celebrities and politicians saying un-PC things in unguarded moments.

It was certainly bad in the Bad Old Days of kings and tyrants when you could step in it deep by saying things about the king or the church. But I have to wonder, is it any better now that there are a multitude of easily-offended “minority” groups who can hold you accountable, not for your actions but for your opinions – or even tentative speculations?

(I put “minority” in scare quotes, because it includes women, who were 51 percent of the population last I checked.)

The result is though we pride ourselves on being a free people with a free press, journalists lie a lot because they’re afraid.

Case in point, CNN broadcast journalist and opinion columnist Jane Velez-Mitchell.

Velez-Mitchell has an impassioned op-ed on the CNN website entitled, “11-year-old girl can’t be ‘willing’ in sex.”

It’s about an 11-year-old girl who last November was passed around like a bottle of liquor by possibly up to 28 young men between the ages of 14 to 28 – some of whom recorded the event on cell phone cameras.

If that isn’t bad enough, well here’s what she wrote in the lede.

“What’s more shocking than the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl? The fact that some people are actually blaming the little girl.”

The article goes on to report since there is video evidence that precludes a defense of “somebody else did it,” the defenders of the accused are falling back on “Plan B” – blame the victim.

As far as I can tell, every word of the article is true, and the speculations valid. And yet she lies.

There is NOT ONE WORD in the story that says the “divisions” in this town are black-brown! The victim is Hispanic, the accused are black.

Did Velez-Mitchell think these facts are irrelevant? Will she deign to notice them if that town explodes in a black-brown war? And yes, I know what saying this is going to get me called.

She sort of lets you in on this without actually saying it:

“First, an attorney for some of the suspects described the girl as someone who had a “desire to be a willing participant.” That was followed by the arrival in town of a Houston-based community activist named Quanell X who stood before a group of local parents and exclaimed, “It was not the young girl that yelled rape! Stop right there. Something is wrong brothers and sisters… Where was her mother? Where was her father? Where was her family?””

That’s kind of a broad hint, “Quanell X” is not a typical Anglo-Saxon name, even in this age of trendy weirdness in names.

She continues:

“Perhaps more disturbing than his words were the murmurs of approval from the crowd. How about asking, “Where were the parents of the 14-year-old boy who is now accused of raping the 11-year-old girl?””

And that crowd was composed of…?

Here’s a hint for Ms Velez-Mitchell: if that 14-year-old boy and the other boys and young men were representative of their demographic, there is a 70 percent chance there was no father at home. So that’s “mother,” not “parents.” And to answer your question, she’s in the crowd blaming the young girl.

Velez-Mitchell asks what kind of example we as a society are setting young boys?

I’d like to ask, what kind of example are you setting me Jane? You’re a big-time journalist and I’m strictly small-town small-fry. Aren’t you supposed to be setting an example for those of us who’d like to believe fearless pursuit of the truth will take you far?

Can’t any of you big names squirrel away some of the big bucks you’re making for a stash of drop dead money*?

As you can see from the bio, Velez-Mitchell is the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and an Irish-American father. I think we can safely assume she uses her parents’ names hyphenated to get the minority career bump. Hell, over at FOX Julie Banderas, nee Julie Bidwell, does that. (The difference is, Banderas actually looks Hispanic. Velez-Mitchell looks less Hispanic than I do.)

She is also listed as “one of the few openly-gay journalists on television.” Oh puh-lease, that hasn’t been a career disability in years.

Velez-Mitchell is the author of the book, Secrets Can Be Murder: What America’s Most Sensational Crimes Tell Us About Ourselves.Wikipedia says the book “delves into the secrets unearthed in more than twenty of the most widely covered murder cases of recent times. The book’s premise is that, by studying the secrecy and deceit embedded in these tragic scenarios, we can learn to opt for honesty in our own lives and avoid similar outcomes.”

Oh yeah? I’d like to meet the courageous author of that book. You don’t by any chance know where I can find her do you?

Velez-Mitchell seems to think saying loudly that 11-year-old girls shouldn’t be raped and blamed for it, is an act of courage.

Don’t boast to me about your courage lady, this article shows you’re a coward, just like that ass US Attorney-General Holder said.

* “Drop dead money” is a phrase James Clavell used in his novel ‘Noble House.’ It means enough money, liquid and unencumbered to be able to tell anyone “drop dead” and walk away. I don’t have drop dead money, my security is a CDL – but I’d rather be a first-rate journalist than a mediocre truck driver.

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