Posted on 08/28/2015 9:01:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
The double standard our media impose on child sexual abuse is garishly obvious. On Aug. 14, The Washington Post set the stage for the coming American visit of Pope Francis with another splashy front-page story on a man still berating the Catholic Church after being abused by a priest from 1969 to 1976.
But on Aug. 21, after a court sentenced former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader Molly Shattuck, 48, for sexually abusing a 15-year old boy merely a year ago, the Post ignored it completely. Apparently, there was no room. That boy's family had no media advocate there.
It's horrible that a priest would so egregiously betray his vows to abuse and manipulate a child. It's also horrible that a mother would betray her teenage son by sexually molesting one of his friends. But only one of these stories is apparently "newsworthy."
It's obvious that in our culture today, the idea of a 15-year-old boy "becoming a man" with a grown woman is seen as a happy occasion. The notion of childhood innocence is not just antiquated; it's downright silly. People imagine the high-school high-fives, and don't think of rape.
If Shattuck were a Ravens football player, not a cheerleader, it would be news.
On August 21, ABC's "World News Tonight" ran only 63 words on Shattuck's crime, including a note on the slap-on-the-wrist punishment: "The judge ordering her to spend every other weekend at a probation center for the next two years. The ex-wife of a billionaire CEO, she was selected as a cheerleader in the NFL at the age of 38." The story lasted 19 seconds.
There was no story on CBS, or NBC, or PBS. We couldn't find any coverage on the cable news networks. The New York Times and the Boston Globe, so heralded for how aggressively they dug and dug into sexual abuse among Catholic priests, were nowhere to be found.
When the allegations broke out last November, the networks barely noticed. ABC covered it after midnight on "Nightline" -- using footage from when they had aired a segment promoting Shattuck on "20/20" in 2006, when she made the Ravens cheerleading squad. NBC had one story on "Today," and CBS just a mention on the early morning news.
The crime of a former NFL cheerleader doesn't interest journalists like NFL players do. At the start of last year's NFL season -- from the start of the regular season on Sept. 4 through Oct. 15 -- ABC, CBS and NBC combined for 171 morning and evening news stories on five NFL players embroiled in domestic abuse cases.
What's a more important story, a controversy over deflated footballs or a scandal about an ex-cheerleader committing child sexual abuse? The Big Three networks have devoted a staggering 86-plus minutes this year to obsessing over every aspect of "Deflategate." Molly Shattuck's child sexual abuse drew 19 seconds.
Contemplate that.
The Holy Father lands in Washington on Sept. 22. It's safe to guess we're going to hear more shocking stories about abusive priests in the '60s and '70s -- yes, 40 or 50 years ago. But if the national media cannot broaden their scope to cover other -- which is to say, non-Catholic clergy -- cases of child sex abuse going on much more recently, how can they avoid the accusation of anti-Catholic prejudice?
So Brent...are you drawing some kind of moral equiviency between the so-called Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church, and the Baltimore Ravens football team’s cheerleading squad? That’s just ridiculous. The fact that priests raped little boys and that their bishops, cardinals and popes covered up their crimes and let them go free to rape other little boys is a crime that cries out to heaven for justice!
Or when mulsims do it.
Because it is part of their culture.
And we are not allowed to be racist.
Are you saying that if two different people commit the same crime they should face different penalties dependent on their chosen careers?
“the idea of a 15-year-old boy “becoming a man” with a grown woman is seen as a happy occasion.”
Not that I would endorse it now but it sure as shooting would have been a happy occasion for me. #JustSayin
I will also state categorically that a teenage boy having sex with an adult female is less likely to completely screw up his life than when a middle aged queer priest sticks his hands down a boys pants.
Exactly.
I will also state categorically that a teenage boy having sex with an adult female is less likely to completely screw up his life than when a middle aged queer priest sticks his hands down a boys pants.
There is some equivocation here, or perhaps some unintentional ambiguity. What are you categorizing as the primary factor which "screws up ones life"? The age variance? The age of the victim? The age of the molester? The molester being the same or opposite sex of the victim?
Yep, equating the two crimes (which are not nearly on the same level) is self-serving hyprocracy. The damage incurred is vastly different.
When I was 15 I had 2 female teachers that were decent looking, I spent a lot of time staring at them.
Nice! I bet it stimulated blood flow.
The Mystery Of September 23: Why Does 9/23 Keep Popping Up All Over the Place?
At that age, a stiff breeze could stimulate blood flow. ;-O
Doesn’t it still?
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