I grew infuriated, today, as I read a New York Times article about the gang rape of an 11 year old girl in Texas. The Times, considered by many to be among the premier print publications in this country, mishandled (in my opinion) its reporting on this issue.

Here are some key quotes:

The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?

While I have zero experience as a rapist, I am quite certain that rape isn't something that a person is "drawn into". Raping a person is not a passive experience. Using phrases like "young men have been drawn into such an act" borders on blaming the victim. (Who else would have been drawing them in? Conceding that they were "drawn in" absolves them of guilt.)

“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

Yes, this is a quote from a source, not the Times writer editorializing, but I think the decision to run it was a bad choice. The woman quoted is clearly making the rapists the victims. She's clearly more concerned about the burden the rapists will carry, than the burden the 11 year old little girl who was gang raped will carry.

And the clincher...

(Neighbors)said (the victim) dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said. “Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?” said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record.

Again, both quotes, but I find it questionable that the Times chose to run either of them. These sentiments provide no benefit to the reader other than to (perhaps not so) subtly suggest that the 11 year old gang rape victim was somehow at fault. There is absolutely no good reason for the paper to include this comment.

The apparel and make up choices of an 11 year old rape victim should be of no consequence to the reader. Furthermore, I'd like to ask Ms. Harrison "Where were the mothers of the rapists?" Did they not teach their children that "No means no" or "Raping people is wrong?"

I'm disgusted with the Times handling of this article. Coverage like this will further perpetuate our rape culture.

(Photo borrowed from here...who claims to have gotten it form here.)