Action Alert: Tell the A.P. drugging and raping a child is not “having sex”
|
Posted by Jennifer L Pozner August 17th, 2006 |
ACTION ALERT from Women In Media & News:
Ask the Associated Press to report rape accurately
Inaccurate, misrepresentative and deeply disturbing language mischaracterizes the crime of child rape as “having sex” in a story about the rape and murder of JonBenet Ramsey carried by the Associated Press today and picked up by prominent news outlets including CBS News and ABC News Newsday, the Houston Chronicle, Forbes, Guardian Unlimited and numerous local, national and international print and broadcast outlets.
As noted in a letter to the editor sent by WIMN to the Associated Press, the A.P. has wide influence on the public debate. As of 2:00 pm Eastern time, hundreds of news outlets have used the A.P.’s irresponsible, inaccurate language as the frame for discussing JonBenet Ramsey’s rape and murder — while only four outlets in the Nexis database use the term “rape” in their reporting of this new development in the Ramsey case.
WIMN’s letter to the A.P. follows:
***
[Sent by Women In Media & News to the Associated Press, Aug. 17, 2006]
Attn. National and International Editors:
Does the Associated Press now believe that an adult can ever possibly have consensual sex with a young child? Or, does the A.P. believe it is possible for anyone who has been drugged to consent to sex with the person who drugged them (or with anyone else, for that matter)?
If not, then how do you explain the misrepresentative and deeply disturbing error in your choice of language to describe the alleged rape of child victim JonBenet Ramsey in today’s Associated Press story headlined “Man says he drugged, had sex with Ramsey”? It would be bad enough if the inaccurate language was confined to the headline; instead, it was used as a frame in the lead (“The American suspect in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey told investigators that he drugged and had sex with the 6-year-old beauty queen before accidentally killing her, a senior Thai police office said Thursday.”) and again in the body of the story.
Rape – of anyone, adult or child – is a violent and heinous crime, not simply “sex.” When child sexual abuse or forcible drugging of the victim is involved, there can be absolutely no question that the proper term for the crime is “rape.”
Your newswire has vast influence over the public debate in national and international print, broadcast and online news. To wit, 379 references for the search terms “had sex with” and “JonBenet Ramsey” appear in the Nexis news database’s “News, all” category from 8/16/06 to 8/17/06 at 2pm – while only four references appear for “rape” or “raped” and “JonBenet Ramsey.”
As reporters and editors, you understand better than most the power of language to shape public perception. The reality described in today’s wire story is that suspect John Mark Karr has admitted to raping Ramsey — any future reporting you do on the subject must name his crime for what it was. Anything else furthers public confusion about the nature of sexual assault.
Women In Media & News would like to see a correction or, better yet, a follow-up story (carried on the same A.P. feeds that ran today’s piece) that better explains the nature of child sexual assault and contextualizes Karr’s crime as the violent rape it was.
Sincerely,
Jennifer L. Pozner, Executive Director
Women In Media & News (WIMN)
***
WIMN encourages concerned readers to send your own letter to the Associated Press (click on that link or email info@ap.org). Ideally, your letter should be written in your own words; however, you can feel free to adapt language from our letter above. Remind the newswire that the phrase “have sex with” does not apply to the illegal, violent crime of child sexual assault, and ask the editors to accurately describe the crime against JonBenet Ramsey as rape in future reporting about this case.
WIMN also encourages readers to address your letters of no more than 250 words to these and other outlets that uncritically picked up the A.P.’s misrepresentative language:
ABC News : netaudr@abc.comCBS News: http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.shtml Houston Chronicle: viewpoints@chron.com: Newsday: http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-letterstotheeditor,0,136125.story?coll=ny-opinion-utility Guardian Unlimited: letters@guardian.co.uk Forbes: readers@forbes.com
Please remember that your letters will be most effective when they are written in a firm but polite tone, without name calling and with facts to back up your case.
For tips on writing effective letters to the editor, see “How To Write a Protest Letter” and WIMN’s Action Center.
NOTE: WIMN appreciates you sending us copies of your correspondence with media outlets. If possible, please send copies of your letters to info@wimnonline.org
August 17th, 2006 15:43
Thank you for this alert! I was very disturbed to read that headline and it so helped to know people, particularly women, are standing up to this (and to do it myself). Thanks again for your consitent thoughtfulness.
August 20th, 2006 10:48
I’d also like the press to stop referring to her in a sexualized manner, as “beauty queen” JonBenet Ramsey. This habit encourages the implicit concept embodied in the term “had sex with…”, ie subtly promotes the concept that there could have been any consent to sex by a six year old. From now on I’d like AP et al. to refer to her as “first grader” JBR or something more appropriate to her youth.
August 20th, 2006 16:30
If it’s a quote directly attributable to the guy who has confessed to “being with JonBenet when she died”, I think using whatever words he used is appropriate. After all, it’s probably as accurate to say he “raped” JonBenet as that he confessed to killing JonBenet, except that’s not exactly correct, his words have been summarized as “been with her when she died”, along with a number of other statements, including having drugged her, which are not consistent with evidence that the Boulder DA has.
If the media interprets his words as “had sex with”, I can see having a problem with that. But if it’s a direct quote or paraphrase, even if it’s a wildly inappropriate choice of words, it’s still the words of the accused, and not of the journalist or authorities which we’re reading. If the journalist goes on to say that “having sex” is “rape”, fine, but I think that when a child is involved it’s obvious (I’d hope) to the reader. Where the words of the accused are involved, I can say that the choice of words of the accused is wrong, but if it’s his words, I think it’s perhaps newsworthy and should be reported — and quoted — accurately.
August 20th, 2006 18:58
First of all, I wish I agreed that to all readers, there is no confusion about the difference between “having sex” and “rape.” Unfortunately, I don’t — witness continued news debates over the years about whether or not date rape exists (because, according to some people, a woman on a date who has sex has always basically giv en consent by merely going on the date, etc.).
But, more to the point about this particular A.P. story:
Yes, the A.P. was reporting Karr’s words that he “had sex with” the six-year-old, but they did not do so with requisite quotation marks; instead, they did so a number of times in the body of the piece without putting the perp’s inaccurate language in quotes. In journalistic parlance, when you’re quoting a source
- especially when that source says something inaccurate or offensive - you put
their statement in quotation marks, and if the statement is misleading or offensive you usually add information after the quote that explains or contextualizes it. When you paraphrase a source (ie, ) you usually put the questionable phrase in quotes even if the
rest of the sentence is paraphrased. In either case, good journalism then
follows up with information, facts, and/or statements from other sources that
properly explain and contextualize the source’s questionable statement.
Which is to say — if the A.P. were practicing better, more ethical journalism, they would
have:
– used a headline that didn’t frame the story via the perpetrator’s skewed view
of his act as consensual
(ie, something like, or
- followed up by text in the
body of the piece that properly frames this confession as rape, rather than
leaving the perp’s view of the incident linguistically unchallenged)
– made sure that any time the phrase “had sex with” was used, it was in direct quotation marks
– provided countervailing information or alternative sources’ quotes that would
clearly deliniate the crime as rape, whether or not the perpetrator believed it
was
Journalistic responsibility is to accurately describe events and newsworthy developments, and in this case, the story did not live up to that responsibility.
August 23rd, 2006 07:12
Thank you for this particular call to action. When the media makes any appearance, directly or indirectly, of condoning child sexual abuse, child rape, molestation, or incest, they need a good slap in the face (to say the least.)
I have reposted your call to action on my blog (I hope you don’t mind), and hope the AP, its writers, and its editorial staff are much more aware of the way their words effect those that read their articles.
I also want to thank you for your site. This is the first I’ve visited.
Thanks,
Lisa/Franki
SadlyNormal.org