Liberal media 'ignores' rape-killing of boy, 13

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Liberal media 'ignores' rape-killing of boy, 13 By Toby Harnden in Washington

THE horrific rape and suffocation of a boy of 13 by two homosexuals has ignited controversy over whether some murder victims are more important than others in America.

The case of Matthew Shepard, murdered by anti-homosexual bigots in Wyoming, became a cause celebre. But the death of Jesse Dirkhising in Benton County, Arkansas, passed virtually unnoticed outside the state. The discrepancy in the way the American media, which is prone to be politically correct, has dealt with the two murders has been cited by conservatives as an example of alleged double standards.

Neither was part of a national trend of an increase in either paedophile or anti-homosexual killings but the murder of Mr Shepard was elevated almost to the level of a national scandal and prompted the addition of attacks on homosexuals to "hate crimes" legislation. Yet, despite the viciousness of the attack on Jesse, his death in September 1999 has been all but ignored by the big metropolitan newspapers.

Jesse was drugged, strapped to a bed and gagged with his own underwear before being repeatedly raped by Joshua Brown, 23, as Brown's lover, Davis Carpenter, 39, allegedly looked on. When Brown, returned to the bedroom after eating a sandwich, Jesse had died. He admitted rape and was found guilty of murder by an Arkansas jury last week even though he argued that Carpenter, who has yet to be tried, had directed him.

In the month after Jesse's death, a newspaper database search yielded 46 articles about him. In the month after Mr Shepard's murder, there were 3,007 articles, including 45 in the New York Times and 28 in the Washington Post. The conservative Washington Times accused the media of ignoring the Dirkhising killing.

But Jonathan Gregg, a Time editor, wrote: "The reason the Dirkhising story received so little play is because it offered no lessons. Shepard's murder touches on a host of complex and timely issues: intolerance, society's attitudes towards gays and the pressure to conform, the use of violence as a means of confronting one's own demons."

Until this week, the debate was largely limited to the Washington Times and various conservative websites. But the latest issue of the Left-leaning New Republic carried a stinging article by Andrew Sullivan, a homosexual British journalist based in Washington.

"The answer is politics. The Shepard case was hyped for political reasons: to build support for inclusion of homosexuals in a federal hate-crimes law. The Dirkhising case was ignored for political reasons: squeamishness about reporting a story that could feed anti-gay prejudice, and the lack of any pending interest-group legislation to hang a story on."

He noted that the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organisation that "raised oodles of cash exploiting the horror of Shepard's murder", had made no comment about the Dirkhising case. Sullivan hinted that hushing it up might help to confirm anti-homosexuals' "suspicions that this murder actually is typical of gays".

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), March 29, 2001

Answers

In the USSR we use advanced Pavlovian behavioral techniques to benevolently heal homosexual enemies of the State.

-- (LeonTrotsky@Skinner.boxes), March 29, 2001.

Uncle Bob sir, in a gathering of fellow conservatives recently, this very subject was the main topic of our conversations. The liberal media and their former Prince have made it unfashionable to utter nary a negative word about the antics of many so-called ‘untouchable’ special interest groups. This ugly story is but one example of the lack of reporting, when in fact we should be outraged. Now, we have the good Reverend Jackson back in the news, somewhat, with allegations that would be network breaking news if the perpetrator were a white preacher of some renown.

What these politically correct mavens fail to realize is the damage this causes to the same groups they are pandering to. Most dare not speak their mind for fear of ‘racist’ or ‘homophobic’ labels stuck on them. This results in pent-up resentment that has the opposite effect that was hoped for. To not express your anger sends a message of condonement.

These two incidents that I refer to are hardly unique to the gay or African American community but to avoid reporting and discussing them will surely lead to an eruption of backlashed emotions.

-- So (cr@t.es), March 29, 2001.


pooooooooooor sick homo's huh???

-- al-d (dogs@zianet.com), March 30, 2001.

The liberal media and their former Prince have made it unfashionable to utter nary a negative word about the antics of many so-called ‘untouchable’ special interest groups.

I think by "antics" and "special interests groups" here you mean homosexuals. The most distinguishing feature about the two men from Mississippi though is not that they're gay, but that they're pedophiles. I will agree this story was probably reported less for PC reasons than if two men had done something similar to a 13-year-old girl.

Now, I don't support hate crimes legislation. However, I do believe many of us who are fairly shockproof find it hard to understand why someone would kill someone else relying on obviously flawed indicators of a person's real character such as race, nationality, religion of choice, or sexual orientation.

The shocking thing about the Matthew Sheperd case is that his attackers thought that knowing he was gay was justification enough for them to judge him as evil and deserving of the things they did to him.

-- The (Matthew@Sheperd.case), March 30, 2001.


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