Channel 2 tonight continues their slant on the story. They had the mother of the accuser on absolving channel 2 (and herself) of any wrongdoing. Good job there, channel 2, good job. On the plus side, we can now say it was Taryn Asher who was responsible for the story. Legal analyst Charlie Langton is conservative about how to proceed, making him the most sensible person paid by WJBK, and Brian Dickerson is raking them over the coals for doing a crappy job of protecting their source, and actually is bringing up the unsubstantiated forcible rape issue. Huel Perkins seems like he's about to cry while whispering "we didn't do anything wrong."
Oh, and they were dangling more "someone else we won't identify is coming forward to accuse the accused for the same thing", without explaining what they mean by "same thing", and without any sort of substantiation. It seems to be at best a rumor. Channel 2 hasn't learned a damned thing. Detroit tv still sucks.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
WJBK: Make it Bleed So It Can Lead Edition
Short version: statutory rape case between a senior and a freshman in high school seems to be brought to the cops by a venom spewing mother; cops proceed with the case. Mother seems to take the story to Fox 2 and appears on TV with her daughter (daughter's face blurred out) to make accusations of forcible rape, which had not been what had been previously claimed to the police. The piece named and showed the 18 year old who was now being accused on TV of forcible rape (which the police decline to pursue due to sketchiness of the changed story and because the text message evidence that had supported the existence of a statutory rape case also clearly supported the idea that the sex involved was consensual). After being accused of forcible rape, the accused responded that the accuser was a liar. Other classmates of the accused and accuser reportedly "bullied" the accuser after Fox 2 put her on the air to make accusations of a malum in se crime instead of the malum prohibitem crime that was in the prosecutorial pipe. Accuser commits suicide.
What the supposed bullying consisted of is unclear; it's the hot media topic at the moment, and pretty much anything is being classed as bullying. Although I haven't seen anyone yet class being falsely accused of forcible rape as bullying; I kinda think that should count more than most of the things classed in the media as bullying. And if you are raked over the coals for making what on the evidence is a false accusation of forcible rape, should that raking be considered bullying? If so, then shouldn't being accused if forcible rape in the media, even if true, be considered bullying?
Fox 2 this morning was harping on the "bullying" and Kam Carmen was harping on about "it was still statutory, he should go to prison!" in her irritating prissy little way. No mention of the bullying only occurring after the Fox 2 story and its imbalanced outing of an accused and not the accuser, which, even ignoring the patent unfairness of outing the one and not the other, forced the accused to out his accuser and would have allowed their peers to know what was going on anyway from the story. No hint of the idea that being consumed by guilt over making a false accusation of an extremely serious crime could have led to the suicide. No hint that the mother of the accuser appeared to be the instigator behind the pursuit of charges (and that if that's the case, she would be the likely person to look for to a false escalation in what was accused), and that maybe she should be held responsible in the court of public opinion for her daughter's suicide.
So why does Detroit tv suck in this instance?
1) Fox 2 appears to protect the identities of anyone making an accusation of rape, but not the identity the accused, even when the evidence points to the accusation being false.
2) Fox 2 is willing to publicize allegations which do not appear based on fact.
3) Fox 2 publicizes a story which can reasonably be foreseen to lead to identification of the accuser they are purporting to "protect" by making semi-anonymous allegations.
4) Fox 2 is reporting widespread outrage over the apparent falsity of allegations not as a legitimate reaction to such a disgusting thing, but as the hot media topic of bullying.
Brian Dickerson puts the whole thing together at
http://www.freep.com/article/20101111/COL04/11110609/1001/news
The ironic thing is his story anonymizes the Fox 2 reporters responsible for the story. They should not be able to hide from this.
What the supposed bullying consisted of is unclear; it's the hot media topic at the moment, and pretty much anything is being classed as bullying. Although I haven't seen anyone yet class being falsely accused of forcible rape as bullying; I kinda think that should count more than most of the things classed in the media as bullying. And if you are raked over the coals for making what on the evidence is a false accusation of forcible rape, should that raking be considered bullying? If so, then shouldn't being accused if forcible rape in the media, even if true, be considered bullying?
Fox 2 this morning was harping on the "bullying" and Kam Carmen was harping on about "it was still statutory, he should go to prison!" in her irritating prissy little way. No mention of the bullying only occurring after the Fox 2 story and its imbalanced outing of an accused and not the accuser, which, even ignoring the patent unfairness of outing the one and not the other, forced the accused to out his accuser and would have allowed their peers to know what was going on anyway from the story. No hint of the idea that being consumed by guilt over making a false accusation of an extremely serious crime could have led to the suicide. No hint that the mother of the accuser appeared to be the instigator behind the pursuit of charges (and that if that's the case, she would be the likely person to look for to a false escalation in what was accused), and that maybe she should be held responsible in the court of public opinion for her daughter's suicide.
So why does Detroit tv suck in this instance?
1) Fox 2 appears to protect the identities of anyone making an accusation of rape, but not the identity the accused, even when the evidence points to the accusation being false.
2) Fox 2 is willing to publicize allegations which do not appear based on fact.
3) Fox 2 publicizes a story which can reasonably be foreseen to lead to identification of the accuser they are purporting to "protect" by making semi-anonymous allegations.
4) Fox 2 is reporting widespread outrage over the apparent falsity of allegations not as a legitimate reaction to such a disgusting thing, but as the hot media topic of bullying.
Brian Dickerson puts the whole thing together at
http://www.freep.com/article/20101111/COL04/11110609/1001/news
The ironic thing is his story anonymizes the Fox 2 reporters responsible for the story. They should not be able to hide from this.
Friday, November 5, 2010
WDIV: We Hated Conan First Edition
Do you like late night television? WDIV historically has not. WDIV did not show Conan O'Brien at 12:35AM for most of its run (the time slot immediately following the Tonight Show, where it ran virtually everywhere). Instead, they would show syndicated programming at that time and delay Conan (and Letterman before him) to 1:35AM.
This explains why I never watched Conan before Comedy Central began its reruns. I loved Conan on Comedy Central; it aired several times a day, always in timeslots easier to watch than 1:35AM. And when it went off Comedy Central... I went back to not watching it (until I got a DVR).
And why? Because WDIV wanted to run Jenny Jones. And then I believe it was Springer. I think WDIV eventually dropped that schedule; but for some reason, I had been trained over a ten year period not to watch WDIV at 12:30 (other than on a DVR). Having the awful Leno as a lead in is not a help, of course, but WDIV has no one to blame but WDIV for for making the slot forgettable.
WDIV does show Jimmy Fallon at 12:35AM now. It's Carson Daly they're screwing over, by generally showing Extra at 1:35AM, followed by... an infomercial! That's right, instead of the 1:35AM Carson Daly is everywhere else in the country, he's on at 2:35AM in Detroit. I wonder why it is I've never watched that show, which has been on for a decade? Now, it would be some innovative and sensible programming if they put Leno at 2:35AM, as the retirees who want to see him have no job to go to in the morning and I suspect are often wakeful zombies in the middle of the night; they could bump up Fallon and Daly. Or maybe some day they too will abandon WDIV for greener pastures; rememebr to watch the new Conan show beginning Monday at 11 on TBS, and cut out WDIV from the equation for added happiness.
Stations are pretty well insulated from being contacted by the people who watch their shows, but some of the contact numbers channel 4 puts out there are 313-962-WDIV and 313-222-0500. Or you can call the "Defenders" at 313-223-CALL-4; maybe they can shove some cameras into their own studio and get something done.
This explains why I never watched Conan before Comedy Central began its reruns. I loved Conan on Comedy Central; it aired several times a day, always in timeslots easier to watch than 1:35AM. And when it went off Comedy Central... I went back to not watching it (until I got a DVR).
And why? Because WDIV wanted to run Jenny Jones. And then I believe it was Springer. I think WDIV eventually dropped that schedule; but for some reason, I had been trained over a ten year period not to watch WDIV at 12:30 (other than on a DVR). Having the awful Leno as a lead in is not a help, of course, but WDIV has no one to blame but WDIV for for making the slot forgettable.
WDIV does show Jimmy Fallon at 12:35AM now. It's Carson Daly they're screwing over, by generally showing Extra at 1:35AM, followed by... an infomercial! That's right, instead of the 1:35AM Carson Daly is everywhere else in the country, he's on at 2:35AM in Detroit. I wonder why it is I've never watched that show, which has been on for a decade? Now, it would be some innovative and sensible programming if they put Leno at 2:35AM, as the retirees who want to see him have no job to go to in the morning and I suspect are often wakeful zombies in the middle of the night; they could bump up Fallon and Daly. Or maybe some day they too will abandon WDIV for greener pastures; rememebr to watch the new Conan show beginning Monday at 11 on TBS, and cut out WDIV from the equation for added happiness.
Stations are pretty well insulated from being contacted by the people who watch their shows, but some of the contact numbers channel 4 puts out there are 313-962-WDIV and 313-222-0500. Or you can call the "Defenders" at 313-223-CALL-4; maybe they can shove some cameras into their own studio and get something done.
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