Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Matt Spiegel on The Score this morning eviscerated the Buffalo News for this story about the Patrick Kane investigation for much the same reasons I did on The Beachwood Radio Hour #65: Why I Hate Reporting On Investigations. In fact, Spiegel (rightly) went further than I did in explaining why the noxious owner of Skybar in fact has “skin in the game” – both financially and legally – when it comes to defending Kane. That aspect escaped me; I hadn’t read enough of the coverage to understand that.
To the Buffalo News, then, I ask: No one in the newsroom saw the problems with that article during editing? For the zillionth time I will proffer to you: There is a huge quality problem in the journalism profession.


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From The Score’s Julie DiCaro:
“As both a former rape victim and a former criminal defense attorney, I have some tips on how to talk about the Kane investigation without saying things so out-of-line that people screen cap them and use them as examples of idiocy on local news sites. Here, then, is how not to talk about the Kane investigation.”
Click through, please.
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DiCaro spoke on the air last week about how she didn’t have the “guts” to prosecute when she was raped. Her description of unavoidable but humiliating forensic testing was harrowing enough in itself.
Also:
“Nearly 70% of rape cases in America go unreported. Think about that for a minute, then ask yourself why that’s the case. As a rape victim myself, I can tell you exactly why, because I was one of the majority of rape victims who didn’t report the crime to the police. I was drunk. I left a club in Cancun with a guy I’d been ‘hanging all over all night,’ I went to a secluded spot with him. Did I deserve to be raped? I certainly don’t think so, but plenty of people do. One thing I do know is that I didn’t report my rape because I knew the questions I would face: ‘You were drunk? Why did you leave with him? Are you sure you didn’t lead him to believe it was okay? Why do you want to run this guy’s life? Are you sure didn’t want to have sex with him and now you’re crying rape because you’re embarrassed?’
“Good grief. Who wants to go through all of that? We require rape victims to behave perfectly in the hours leading up to the crime or we instantly doubt their stories, yet we don’t do the same for victims of any other type of crime.”
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From AB7 Chicago, via DiCaro:

“My experience over all the years is that a big percentage of these cases first of all turn out not to be true,” Chicago Kent Law Professor Eldon Ham said. “The key is to not jump to conclusions. We don’t even know if there are going to be charges.”

DiCaro’s fact-check: “The best number we have, probably, is the FBI’s estimate that around 8% of rape allegations turn out to be false.”
And, as we learned earlier, an estimated 70% of rapes are never reported. If they were, the percentage of false allegations would be even lower.
Eldon Ham (a designated legal analyst for The Score!), you are Today’s Worst Person In Chicago.
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Seemingly related:
“When former University of Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague abruptly resigned on Friday amid sexual harassment complaints, some wondered if other shiver-inducing tales would emerge,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Amelia Rayno wrote over the weekend.
“I knew of one more: mine.”
This is one helluva story. Click through, please.
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One way diversity works: Women in the newsroom – and in editing/management positions – increases the likelihood that media deals with these issues in an understanding and enlightened way. (The Buffalo News is top-heavy with men, though the sports editor there is a woman.)
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Finally, please spend some time with this year-long study of how Chicago’s newspapers cover violence against women. We still have a long way to go.
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A sampling.


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Sounds familiar.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Blood everywhere.

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Posted on August 10, 2015