Monday, July 7, 2008

Everybody Looks Down On Somebody

Homeschooler raised a very good question about the journalistic philosophy behind the recent story about the pedophile school employee. From her comment (the first bit is quoting the original news article):

"Evidence included photos that were downloaded from the Internet as well as ones taken of girls under 16, both native and non-native."

What does the ethnicity of the victims have to do with anything? Is it worse to victimize "white" girls? Or maybe it's worse to victimize "native" girls. Then again, maybe some of the victims were black, or Jewish, and the reporter just missed that part!?

Victims, no matter ethnicity, are victims. Why divide them? They are all dealing with the same horror. I just don't see how it's relevant.
It would appear that the reporter wanted to make sure everyone knows this guy is an equal opportunity pedophile. He may have some truly perverted inclinations, but he's no bigot.

The reporter may have feared a libel suit. It's one thing to be known as a pedophile, but suspicion of racism could have harmed the accused's career prospects within the public school system.

Enough rambling. Here's another picture taken down the front of my son's shirt.



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