Thursday, July 7, 2011

Journalism v. advocacy

It was three years ago that 14 year old Brandon McInerney shot 15 year old Lawrence King. McInerney's trial is only now getting started. King was gay and bullied (by more than McInerney) and finally began to stand up for himself by flirting with McInerney. McInerney didn't handle that well and brought a gun to school.

We expected the defenders would smear King as a sexual aggressor (and they have), using the "gay panic" defense. But it is annoying when supposedly responsible journalists, such as when Ramen Setoodeh of Newsweek did it a few months after the shooting and Catherine Saillant of the LA Times does it now. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin pulls apart Saillant's article to show how it isn't unbiased journalism, but is advocating for the defense.

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