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"Alleged"

By K.C. Johnson

The media generally does not withhold information as a matter of official policy. But, to my knowledge, every major newspaper in the country has an official policy of not reporting the names of accusers in rape or sexual assault cases. (I?m not aware of any paper that has a policy of refusing to report the name of suspects in sexual assault cases.) Though this practice stems from good intentions (a belief that the reporting of accusers? names will make some real victims unlikely to report the crime), the net effect subtly shades reporting in favor of the suspect?s guilt. With that extraordinary backdrop in mind?that every newspaper already has a policy of framing coverage of sexual assault cases in such a way that suggests readers should accept the validity of the accuser?s story?comes a recent Chronicle letter from a UNC biostatistics professor named Eric Bair...continue to full post

Full post as published by Durham-in-Wonderland on November 09, 2009 (boomark / email).