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At Least 200,000 People Want CNN to Apologize for Its Sympathetic Steubenville Covera

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At Least 200,000 People Want CNN to Apologize for Its Sympathetic Steubenville Coverage - Adam Clark Estes - The Atlantic Wire

Remember the CNN broadcast a few days ago, when Candy Crowley and friends bemoaned the fates of the Steubenville rapists? That didn't go over well, and nearly a quarter million people want the network to do something about it. In the two days since the verdict was read, a Change.org petition asking for CNN to make an on-air apology — okay, several on-air apologies — has gained over 215,000 signatures and looked to be on track to reach the self-assigned goal of 300,000 in a matter of hours. In other words, a lot of people are not happy with how CNN covered the Steubenville trial, and they're not going to forget about it any time soon.

Now, this isn't about the trial. In my opinion, both the guys deserved to be tried in a real court, not juvenile court and their sentences of 1-2 years in juvenile correction facility is too little. What they did is gang rape and it should be condemned with the full force of the law, as well as be labelled sex offenders and be targetted for life. If you differ, fine, but this topic primarily about CNN.

CNN covered this story accusing the victim and being favorable towards the rapists. I mean really, this is a new low, and congrats to the viewers of CNN for standing up and demanding that this sad excuse for a news network apologise and never repeat the same mistakes as it did, and I think they should demand that candy crawley and all the people who covered this event in such light, get fired. I mean this is just horrible. Just horrible.

CNN is supposed to be the balanced network, the more fair network... a more... correct and reliable news site coverage site than the hyper partisan ones like NBC and MSNBC on one hand, Fox on the other.

But nooo... they lament the sentencing to a very light sentence of 2 rapists who gang raped a girl at a party and took pictures. don't tell me this wasn't intentional, it was fully intentional and CNN messed up. It shouldn't have been sympathetic towards the victim either, it should have been fair and balanced and present the facts as they were. Not try and produce sympathy for the rapists.
 
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Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

I caught the original broadcast, and watched it again just now.

I am not seeing overt prejudice by CNN.

All of these overly emotional clowns need to stop their whining, and stop wasting everyone's time.

Lord, but this country is turning into a bunch of thin-skinned whining little ******s.

It's embarrassing.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

They were just confused because the rapists were black and nobody told them who they should be rooting for. I blame the sequester.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

They were just confused because the rapists were black and nobody told them who they should be rooting for. I blame the sequester.

Somewhat incorrect. One of the rapists was black, the other was white.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

I don't get the outrage. I never heard the reporters say that their lives being destroyed was bad or undeserved. It is tragic that it had to go there because those boys chose to do what they did, but that is not saying that the punishment is wrong on the heavy side. that is just saying they are going to suffer the consequences of their choices, and given who they were they might have enjoyed a rather good life had they chosen a different path. Yes, i am sure it is emotional to watch people you have not been directly wronged by facing permanent consequences that will destroy their lives, but hopefully someone out there will remember that the next time they see a drunk chick somewhere and decide not to ruin their lives for some stupid sexual encounter with a half dead person. I did not see any of them blaming the victim for this outcome. Certainly when they talked about the emotion they talked about the boys actions which got them these consequences and didn't say that she was in the wrong for pressing charges. About the only thing i see is that they did not cheer that the boys would have their lives destroyed. yes, I would have liked to have seen a bit more cheering, but they are right that none of this had to happen, and all of the crap that comes from this is on the boys.

There was the amusing point about the father never saying he loved his son until he was convicted of rape. I guess it is better that it was way to damned late than ever, but at least the father recognizes he probably had some influence over his son's terrible behavior. Perhaps someone can point me to where CNN actually said this was the victim's fault and the boys did not deserve the sentence they got because it was too harsh because it certainly was not in the clip that was shown in the article. The clip did show the emotional destruction and effects of the sentencing on the guilty, and that is honest. Just because you were guilty does not mean you want to face the consequences of your actions, or that you are going to be happy about being a sex offender for the rest of your life and potentially pissing away almost every opportunity that awaited you.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

I caught the original broadcast, and watched it again just now.

I am not seeing overt prejudice by CNN.

All of these overly emotional clowns need to stop their whining, and stop wasting everyone's time.

Lord, but this country is turning into a bunch of thin-skinned whining little ******s.

It's embarrassing.

You get a like for the red part.

But I disagree with you. The CNN coverage was focused intensively on breeding sympathy for the rapists, giving them much of the span of the attention, including that BS apology sequence which is obviously staged by those guys and didn't mean it. Granted ,the black rapist made a more convincing theatric than the white rapist but still, theatrics. But it was all designed to breed symapthy for the gangbangers. Because they were gang rapists. Funny, they were never actually rapists, just people who were accused of rape in an alcohol filled environment.

It is despicable.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

The whole point here is the reporter got on an emotional level with the story, siding those emotions with how the rapists felt when handed their conviction. It adds insult to injury for the victim and the victims family.

When a politician makes a poor public remark, they face the consequences and apologize, sometimes having to step down from their position. I think the reporter should issue an apology and find a different line of work. It isn't CNN's responsibility to issue an apology, it's the responsibility of the reporter. CNN should fire the reporter.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

You get a like for the red part.

But I disagree with you. The CNN coverage was focused intensively on breeding sympathy for the rapists, giving them much of the span of the attention, including that BS apology sequence which is obviously staged by those guys and didn't mean it. Granted ,the black rapist made a more convincing theatric than the white rapist but still, theatrics. But it was all designed to breed symapthy for the gangbangers. Because they were gang rapists. Funny, they were never actually rapists, just people who were accused of rape in an alcohol filled environment.

It is despicable.

Maybe watching them cry and boo-hoo showed them to be the crying little ******s they really are.

Maybe watching them apologize showed them to be guilty liars after all.

In any event, who cares.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, or would you prefer that they first get their opinions approved by government oversight?
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

You get a like for the red part.

But I disagree with you. The CNN coverage was focused intensively on breeding sympathy for the rapists, giving them much of the span of the attention, including that BS apology sequence which is obviously staged by those guys and didn't mean it. Granted ,the black rapist made a more convincing theatric than the white rapist but still, theatrics. But it was all designed to breed symapthy for the gangbangers. Because they were gang rapists. Funny, they were never actually rapists, just people who were accused of rape in an alcohol filled environment.

It is despicable.

Maybe some of us are cynical and recognize that many people probably cry and lose it when they are sentenced. It does not actually make me feel sympathy. Sympathy is a much different emotion than pity for the consequences of a really stupid crime they had a choice about doing. It is sad and pathetic those boys did that. them crying over it makes it more pathetic. Can you please point me to a phrase that says the boys should have gotten less punishment, or that they got screwed over by being charged with rape? Just because they cried doesn't mean i feel sympathy for them. yes, when you want truth in broadcasting you did get a bit of it here. Of course they feel sorry, their lives are screwed. If that bawling apology came right after the crime I might buy that it might be real, but they took to making fun of her right after.

People want to dance around and celebrate the destruction of the lives of these boys because it makes them feel better about something they cannot change. It helps you to enjoy their pain because then you think that justice has been served and nothing else needs to be done. Still, tomorrow the victim will have to live with the same thing again. No amount of punishment takes that away. Not that they should not be punished, but the only reason you want them top be punished is because you want to think something can take the pain away for the victim. You don't want the boys to be seen as sorry, you want them to be hurt. The sorry part got in the way of the warm fuzzy you would feel if they just broke down crying. Just enjoy their tears and remember that part of you is just like the part in them when they decided to revel in their crime the day after just for the sake of causing their victim more pain. embrace your dark side and quit complaining because it disturbs you.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Maybe some of us are cynical and recognize that many people probably cry and lose it when they are sentenced. It does not actually make me feel sympathy. Sympathy is a much different emotion than pity for the consequences of a really stupid crime they had a choice about doing. It is sad and pathetic those boys did that. them crying over it makes it more pathetic. Can you please point me to a phrase that says the boys should have gotten less punishment, or that they got screwed over by being charged with rape? Just because they cried doesn't mean i feel sympathy for them. yes, when you want truth in broadcasting you did get a bit of it here. Of course they feel sorry, their lives are screwed. If that bawling apology came right after the crime I might buy that it might be real, but they took to making fun of her right after.

People want to dance around and celebrate the destruction of the lives of these boys because it makes them feel better about something they cannot change. It helps you to enjoy their pain because then you think that justice has been served and nothing else needs to be done. Still, tomorrow the victim will have to live with the same thing again. No amount of punishment takes that away. Not that they should not be punished, but the only reason you want them top be punished is because you want to think something can take the pain away for the victim. You don't want the boys to be seen as sorry, you want them to be hurt. The sorry part got in the way of the warm fuzzy you would feel if they just broke down crying. Just enjoy their tears and remember that part of you is just like the part in them when they decided to revel in their crime the day after just for the sake of causing their victim more pain. embrace your dark side and quit complaining because it disturbs you.

Did you watch the report? How much of it was it dedicated to displaying the victims' side of the story? Not much... it was a subpart of displaying the story of these so-called "promising" young boys. Promising rapists and gangbangers maybe. The whole story was a sham, a disgraceful display of journalism.

It doesn't make me happy that their lives are being "destroyed", but you know what is sadder? That they did it to themselves by being a bunch of gang rapists. It's a pretty safe bet that if they wouldn't be put in jail, they would go out and destroy the lives of many other innocent girls, as the victims' life was more destroyed by that event than these guys.

Also, there was no mention of the word "rapists" or "violator" or "gang rapists" as it would be correct. They never used it. "these 2 young men that had promising future, good students, star football players, etc". "both were found guilty of raping at alcohol infused parties". The correct phrase would have been "these 2 gang rapists" period. And then the whole father son thing.
At the end: these two juveniles are brought out; The correct phrase would have been: both juvenile deliquents; both criminals; both rapists; and such.

This was biased reporting, and there was NO time spent on how the victim felt, on what the victim experienced, on her trauma of being gang raped, just these 2 criminals. That's all. They were all that mattered. Their trauma. The Onion did an amazing job at making a video mocking the CNN. Candy fatface and that other reporter need to get fired.

And furthermore, I don't know what your last phrases meant, but I am not reveling at all. I am angry that justice has not been served. 1year and 2 years for rape and they don't even get sent to prison, but a juvenile correction facility? Really? This is not justice. this is a disgrace, this is fallacy. But that is on the topic of how messed up the legal system is. They deserve long years in prison and a sex offender label stamped on their foreheads.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

They were just confused because the rapists were black and nobody told them who they should be rooting for. I blame the sequester.

It must be a really grey world you live in. Like there's a constant storm front or something. I mean, you just seem to see the world in such black & white terms.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

At Least 200,000 People Want CNN to Apologize for Its Sympathetic Steubenville Coverage - Adam Clark Estes - The Atlantic Wire

Now, this isn't about the trial. In my opinion, both the guys deserved to be tried in a real court, not juvenile court and their sentences of 1-2 years in juvenile correction facility is too little. What they did is gang rape and it should be condemned with the full force of the law, as well as be labelled sex offenders and be targetted for life. If you differ, fine, but this topic primarily about CNN.

CNN covered this story accusing the victim and being favorable towards the rapists. I mean really, this is a new low, and congrats to the viewers of CNN for standing up and demanding that this sad excuse for a news network apologise and never repeat the same mistakes as it did, and I think they should demand that candy crawley and all the people who covered this event in such light, get fired. I mean this is just horrible. Just horrible.

CNN is supposed to be the balanced network, the more fair network... a more... correct and reliable news site coverage site than the hyper partisan ones like NBC and MSNBC on one hand, Fox on the other.

But nooo... they lament the sentencing to a very light sentence of 2 rapists who gang raped a girl at a party and took pictures. don't tell me this wasn't intentional, it was fully intentional and CNN messed up. It shouldn't have been sympathetic towards the victim either, it should have been fair and balanced and present the facts as they were. Not try and produce sympathy for the rapists.

I found nothing untoward about the news coverage. If people found it somehow "sympathetic" to the rapists, then it's because it's a sad story of two young boys who made terrible decisions and . . . it IS sad. It IS sad that one of the boys lived with guardians and had a father who wasn't in his life. It IS sad that these two guys will have to live with being on the sex offender list for the rest of their lives.

This was a news story covering their sentencing, not the crime itself. It was a big story, huge story, in a little town. America was watching. I just hope America got the message.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

I found nothing untoward about the news coverage. If people found it somehow "sympathetic" to the rapists, then it's because it's a sad story of two young boys who made terrible decisions and . . . it IS sad. It IS sad that one of the boys lived with guardians and had a father who wasn't in his life. It IS sad that these two guys will have to live with being on the sex offender list for the rest of their lives.

This was a news story covering their sentencing, not the crime itself. It was a big story, huge story, in a little town. America was watching. I just hope America got the message.

You know what is not sad? the fact that there are people who manage to go though life without being rapists.
In fact, most of the people do that. There is no sympathy in the sympathy bank for people who willingly commit a crime. Because this is a willful action, they even took pictures to brag about it. There are plenty of people who live in orphanages and such and end up being ok people.

This isn't even a case of "well, we can't prove anything, but we think they're guilty". We know they are guilty. There is ample evidence to support it.

Mistakes are when you walk in on a girl who is changing her clothes. You say: oops, sorry, close the door and apologize. This was not a mistake.

This was a news story covering the sentencing for a crime they did. And they were never reffered to as rapists, violators or any other correct denomination to suit their new found identity. They were only referred to as promising young students, juveniles, teenagers.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

You know what is not sad? the fact that there are people who manage to go though life without being rapists.
In fact, most of the people do that. There is no sympathy in the sympathy bank for people who willingly commit a crime. Because this is a willful action, they even took pictures to brag about it. There are plenty of people who live in orphanages and such and end up being ok people.

This isn't even a case of "well, we can't prove anything, but we think they're guilty". We know they are guilty. There is ample evidence to support it.

Mistakes are when you walk in on a girl who is changing her clothes. You say: oops, sorry, close the door and apologize. This was not a mistake.

This was a news story covering the sentencing for a crime they did. And they were never reffered to as rapists, violators or any other correct denomination to suit their new found identity. They were only referred to as promising young students, juveniles, teenagers.

They were tried in juvenile court for a reason. Otherwise good kids (and they were) did a terrible thing under the influence of alcohol. 16- and 17-year-olds' brains aren't fully cooked. That's why they are tried as juvies. I saw nothing wrong with the report on their sentencing. If it was sympathetic to the rapists, it's because it's a sad damned story.

Are these two young men alone in their responsibility for this crime? No, they're not. Where did they get the alcohol? Whose homes were they at when this on-going incident occurred? What parents/adults looked the other way while a bunch of teens got blasted?

Personally? I hope some adults are called to answer for their crimes here.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

They were tried in juvenile court for a reason. Otherwise good kids (and they were) did a terrible thing under the influence of alcohol. 16- and 17-year-olds' brains aren't fully cooked. That's why they are tried as juvies. I saw nothing wrong with the report on their sentencing. If it was sympathetic to the rapists, it's because it's a sad damned story.

Are these two young men alone in their responsibility for this crime? No, they're not. Where did they get the alcohol? Whose homes were they at when this on-going incident occurred? What parents/adults looked the other way while a bunch of teens got blasted?

Personally? I hope some adults are called to answer for their crimes here.

I could not care less about the CNN part of the story but I agree with your assessment of the entire sad situation. One bad decision while under the influence of alcohol and your life can be ruined not to mention the other people your bad decision can effect, the girl in this instance.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

They were tried in juvenile court for a reason. Otherwise good kids (and they were) did a terrible thing under the influence of alcohol. 16- and 17-year-olds' brains aren't fully cooked. That's why they are tried as juvies. I saw nothing wrong with the report on their sentencing. If it was sympathetic to the rapists, it's because it's a sad damned story.

Are these two young men alone in their responsibility for this crime? No, they're not. Where did they get the alcohol? Whose homes were they at when this on-going incident occurred? What parents/adults looked the other way while a bunch of teens got blasted?

Personally? I hope some adults are called to answer for their crimes here.

Agreed.

16 yrs old is old enough to know what is morally right and what is morally wrong, not to mention legally. Most kids seem pass through that age without having to do any crimes, let alone rape. The fact that these 2 didn't just goes to show that they are part of the group of people who we must be wary of. They are not good people. they are bad people. And the victim here is the only one who deserves our sympathy.

I also think the juvenile age should be lowered to 16. If you're old enough to drive at 16 in the USA, you should be old enough to stand trial as a mature adult.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, or would you prefer that they first get their opinions approved by government oversight?

How did you get from "criticism of being sympathetic to rapists" to "government thought control?"
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Just reading the article is seems like another case of people wanting to complain. If only they weren't being forced to watch CNN.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Somewhat incorrect. One of the rapists was black, the other was white.

Interesting that the article I was looking at online only had a picture of a black guy.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

I caught the original broadcast, and watched it again just now.

I am not seeing overt prejudice by CNN.

All of these overly emotional clowns need to stop their whining, and stop wasting everyone's time.

Lord, but this country is turning into a bunch of thin-skinned whining little ******s.

It's embarrassing.

I watched and didn't see any "bemoaning" of the verdict, no sympathy for the rapists, and no blaming of the victim.

They merely discussed the seriousness of the consequences, as they should be doing.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Interesting that the article I was looking at online only had a picture of a black guy.

Here are photos of both rapists.

s-STEUBENVILLE-RAPE-TRIAL-large.jpg


s-STEUBENVILLE-RAPE-large.jpg


s-STEUBENVILLE-RAPE-TRIAL-large.jpg


See? One is white, the other is black.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Yeah this thread is a testament as to why I never follow rape stories too closely.......there are no winners and everybody gets pissed off.
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Wow, I just watched the report in question, and that was awful coverage. They raped a young girl, and whether they were drunk or not means absolutely nothing!! I've never seen this kind of sympathy from a news source. How incredibly insensitive to the family of the victim?

Tim-
 
Re: CNN takes side of rapists, viewers demand apology

Did you watch the report? How much of it was it dedicated to displaying the victims' side of the story? Not much... it was a subpart of displaying the story of these so-called "promising" young boys. Promising rapists and gangbangers maybe. The whole story was a sham, a disgraceful display of journalism.

Do you know why that is? because this was about the end of the trial sentencing which focuses on the punishment for the criminals. Anyone who gives a damn already knows what happened, and why those guys are there. It is not like they covered up the fact they were being punished for rape. Talk about making an issue out of nothing. if that was the worst CNN did that day then they have gotten a lot better.
It doesn't make me happy that their lives are being "destroyed", but you know what is sadder? That they did it to themselves by being a bunch of gang rapists. It's a pretty safe bet that if they wouldn't be put in jail, they would go out and destroy the lives of many other innocent girls, as the victims' life was more destroyed by that event than these guys.

Did you watch the clip? They went through the reality these guys will be sexual predators for the rest of their lives. yes, you want to see them hurt, it just bugs you that they were not hurt enough for you. Why don't you start getting honest with yourself about that instead of blaming CNN. How much punishment would have made raping a girl OK? You probably cannot punish them enough to make that idea go away in your mind, or the actual victim which you are pretending you are. If the victim is outraged at this then she has a right to be. However, you were not raped, and all you want to see is rapists getting hurt because you don't have to feel guilty about liking that.
Also, there was no mention of the word "rapists" or "violator" or "gang rapists" as it would be correct. They never used it. "these 2 young men that had promising future, good students, star football players, etc". "both were found guilty of raping at alcohol infused parties". The correct phrase would have been "these 2 gang rapists" period. And then the whole father son thing.
At the end: these two juveniles are brought out; The correct phrase would have been: both juvenile deliquents; both criminals; both rapists; and such.

Really, you are saying that finding them guilty of rape does not make them rapists? Did you really want to go with that? What does it make them? I am sorry, but if you cannot figure out they are rapists from being guilty of rape then that is a problem with you. I thought you were blowing things way out of proportion before. here, I will draw the picture for you to make you feel better. If you are guilty of rape then you are a rapist. It is the same thing. So you can be happy that they called the boys rapists. Of course, i would have preferred a public flogging to go with the kids, but I guess semantics is something to blow way out of proportion here. Don't worry about the fact that they will forever be labelled on the sexual offender registry as rapists because they totally let them off the hook by supposedly not calling them a rapist in some CNN clip and only telling people they were guilty of rape. I could get being ticked about them being tried as juveniles and only sentenced to a couple of years for this. I could get being annoyed at the people who did defend them because they threw a ball in high school well. But you are ticked off because they said they were found guilty of rape but didn't call them rapists.
This was biased reporting, and there was NO time spent on how the victim felt, on what the victim experienced, on her trauma of being gang raped, just these 2 criminals. That's all. They were all that mattered. Their trauma. The Onion did an amazing job at making a video mocking the CNN. Candy fatface and that other reporter need to get fired.

Wait, you need the reporters to tell you for the billionth time in this case that the victim feels bad? Trust me, it didn't go away for her. Actually, i hope it did go away for her, but I am pretty sure that it didn't.
And furthermore, I don't know what your last phrases meant, but I am not reveling at all. I am angry that justice has not been served. 1year and 2 years for rape and they don't even get sent to prison, but a juvenile correction facility? Really? This is not justice. this is a disgrace, this is fallacy. But that is on the topic of how messed up the legal system is. They deserve long years in prison and a sex offender label stamped on their foreheads.

You see, there is the argument that is making you angry. You wanted them to be hurt more so you could enjoy it more. That argument I can get. So you are mad that you didn't get to revel in a greater punishment, so you go after CNN and blow their reporting up. Really, would calling them gang rapists have truly made up for the rather light punishment they got for this crime? Would it have really satisfied your desire for their pain to have the reporter call them gang rapists? I think not. You would still be all bothered about it. You should really be a little more honest with yourself. While you are being honest with yourself remember you don't actually care about the victim. You would have never made an effort to know about this case without the news latching onto it. you don't care to know that this sort of thing happens pretty much daily across the country. You really care much more about the pain caused to the boys than the pain caused to the victim. You just want to feel good seeing people hurt in a way that satisfies your cruelty without tripping your guilt.

Please, stop pretending you are the victim with your complaints.
 
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