Why Do So Many US News Sources Refer to 14-Year-Old Rape and Murder Victim as a Woman?
In recent days it has become known that five US soldiers allegedly raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her 5-year-old little sister and their parents and burned the bodies to cover up the crime.
Some news agencies including Reuters were able to prove that she was only 14 using her passport and identity card. The doctor examining her remains said she was 14. Records show that she was born August 19, 1991. A picture of her in 1993 shows her as a 2-year-old child.
In spite of this many US news media sources continue to refer to her as a woman. Why?
This has been bothering me for days. I just checked Fox News, CNN, the BBC, NBC and CBS as well as many print news sources continue to refer to the little girl as a woman. I wasn't able to check ABC.
Sarah Weber writing in Editor and Publisher takes up this point in this article entitled When is a 14-year-old girl a woman.
I’m glad Ms. Weber wrote the article because this has been bothering me since it came out that the victim was only a child. What is the rational for so many US news outlets continuing to call her a woman? It seems to be a consented effort among many of them. Who is pressuring them to continue this?
The Lawrence Journal-World, published a letter from a reader which read: "I really can’t decide what is more disheartening about the news story regarding the 'young Iraqi woman' who was allegedly raped and killed by U.S. soldiers: the fact that there are armed Americans running around Iraq who evidently don’t view Arab females as human, or the fact that the news media tries to mitigate the magnitude of their alleged crime by referring to the victim as a 'woman. Let’s keep the facts straight here, and let’s not soften the horror by aging the victim semantically. She was a 14-year-old girl."
Hear hear. I'm glad I'm not the only one concerned by this.
An updated aticle from Editor and Publisher can be found here. Again, who is behind the push to call this 14-year-old little girl a woman in the media reports?
Some news agencies including Reuters were able to prove that she was only 14 using her passport and identity card. The doctor examining her remains said she was 14. Records show that she was born August 19, 1991. A picture of her in 1993 shows her as a 2-year-old child.
In spite of this many US news media sources continue to refer to her as a woman. Why?
This has been bothering me for days. I just checked Fox News, CNN, the BBC, NBC and CBS as well as many print news sources continue to refer to the little girl as a woman. I wasn't able to check ABC.
Sarah Weber writing in Editor and Publisher takes up this point in this article entitled When is a 14-year-old girl a woman.
I’m glad Ms. Weber wrote the article because this has been bothering me since it came out that the victim was only a child. What is the rational for so many US news outlets continuing to call her a woman? It seems to be a consented effort among many of them. Who is pressuring them to continue this?
The Lawrence Journal-World, published a letter from a reader which read: "I really can’t decide what is more disheartening about the news story regarding the 'young Iraqi woman' who was allegedly raped and killed by U.S. soldiers: the fact that there are armed Americans running around Iraq who evidently don’t view Arab females as human, or the fact that the news media tries to mitigate the magnitude of their alleged crime by referring to the victim as a 'woman. Let’s keep the facts straight here, and let’s not soften the horror by aging the victim semantically. She was a 14-year-old girl."
Hear hear. I'm glad I'm not the only one concerned by this.
An updated aticle from Editor and Publisher can be found here. Again, who is behind the push to call this 14-year-old little girl a woman in the media reports?
posted by Joe | 7/11/2006 06:54:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home