RADAR ALERT: NPR Gives Raped Males The Unworthy Victim Treatment

[RADAR]

RADAR ALERT: NPR Gives Raped Males The Unworthy Victim Treatment

Last week, June 23, Attorney General Eric Holder missed the deadline for issuing standards to prevent prison rape.¹

Men being raped in prison is so accepted by mainstream America that Saturday Night Live's writers saw nothing wrong with doing 4-1/2 minutes of ass-rape jokes in a sketch called "Scared Straight" that ended with Betty White saying emphatically, "Wizard of Ass"!²  Blogger Scott Starnes states the attitude explicitly.  Under a graphic stating "Ass-Rape: It's Always Funny," Starnes asks: "Who honestly cares about criminals being ass-raped in prison?"³

Ignorant callousness is an obvious problem for reformers trying to eliminate prison rape.  But an even more insidious problem is the media's treatment of male victims as unworthy of concern, as NPR's Morning Edition recently did.⁴.  NPR chose to ignore the fact that 90% of incarcerated individuals are male, and instead focused their story solely on a female-prisoner's experience of prison-rape.  This form of bias is so subtle that most listeners won't even notice it.  But it is a classic example of the very media bias described by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in their book  Manufacturing Consent⁵, in which they write:

"Our hypothesis is that worthy victims will be featured prominently and dramatically, that they will be humanized, and that their victimization will receive the detail and context in story construction that will generate reader interest and sympathetic emotion. In contrast, unworthy victims will merit only slight detail, minimal humanization, and little context that will excite and enrage."

NPR's decision to focus solely on a female victim's experience demonstrates that they view female rape victims as "worthy" and male victims as "unworthy."  And their mischaracterizing the issue will inevitably lead to stronger protections for female inmates and weaker or non-existent protections for the vast majority of inmates -- the male inmates.

Society's indifference to male victimization helps explain why the Department of Justice can't get its act together to come up with standards that are already pretty well known.  Columnist Robert Franklin summarizes the DoJ's cynical attitude about missing the deadline as, "Why bother?  It's mostly men who are abused, right?"⁶

Cultural assumptions play an important role in the creation of public policy.  And a subtly biased story coming from a mainstream media outlet like NPR is far more effective in propagating and perpetuating bias than anything an obviously biased blogger like Scott Starnes could come out with.  Therefore, efforts at exposing subtle bias and trying to correct it are essential to RADAR's mission to reform the nation's domestic violence laws.

Kindly contact Morning Edition

http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx?sid=1

and ask them to do a follow-up story on the DoJ's failure to issue standards for the prevention of prison rape.  Let them know that their listeners want them to treat male victims as equally worthy of sympathy as female victims.  In Chomsky and Herman's words, the suffering of male victims should be featured prominently and dramatically, the male victims should be humanized just as NPR's stories have done for female victims, and stories on male victims should give sufficient detail and context to generate reader interest and sympathetic emotion.

When you contact NPR, please be polite.
1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lovisa-stannow/attorney-general-misses-h_b_622777.html
2 http://www.hulu.com/embed/Jg9atJtz6ba4_jem0HfKUw
3 http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/doj-lead-by-ag-eric-holder-is-worried-about-ass-rape-in-prison-system
4 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127376570
5 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Manufac_Consent_Prop_Model.html
6 http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=4841



Date of RADAR Release: June 29, 2010

R.A.D.A.R. -- Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting -- is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence.  http://www.mediaradar.org
           


Copyright (c) 2005-2010. RADAR -- Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

       

[neoteny]

NPR's decision to focus solely on a female victim's experience demonstrates that they view female rape victims as "worthy" and male victims as "unworthy."

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." -- Animal Farm

[Men's Rights Activist]

I sent this (copy all, or any part as you like):

"Re:  Most prison rapes are of males - Stop NPR's biased reporting about it - Stop ALL prison rapes - Men matter too

Men are 94% of the prison population and the vast majority of prision rapes.  Please do a follow-up story on the DoJ's failure to issue standards for the prevention of prison rape. Your listeners want you to treat male victims as equally worthy of sympathy as female victims.  The suffering of male victims should be featured prominently and dramatically.  Male victims should also be humanized, just as NPR's stories have done for female victims.  And stories on male victims should give sufficient detail and context to generate reader interest and sympathetic emotion."

[The Biscuit Queen]

So when women are raped in prison it is funny?

*chirp chirp* 

[Captain Courageous]

"Ass Rape",as they so quaintly call it, entails enslavement too. It's not about "Ha-ha-ha ... I gotcha!" It's about "I own you now!" That's forced slavery and is prohibited at the level of the Constitution.

[Virtue]

*chirp chirp*

Better keep those crickets away from your chickens BQ! !

[Captain Courageous]

Prison rape is culturally considered part of the punishment of incarceration. It "comes with the territory", no pun intended.

[neoteny]

Prison rape is culturally considered part of the punishment of incarceration. It "comes with the territory", no pun intended.

That might be so; but if someone gets jailed for breaking the law, and his jailers don't keep or enforce the law, they lose all moral authority.

[Captain Courageous]

I agree with you completely on that.

[The Biscuit Queen]

*chirp chirp*

Better keep those crickets away from your chickens BQ! !

But it makes the eggs taste better :-)

[Captain Courageous]

*chirp chirp*

Better keep those crickets away from your chickens BQ! !

But it makes the eggs taste better :-)

Say Wot??!!

[The Biscuit Queen]

When chickens eat insects the eggs taste better.

[Men's Rights Activist]

When chickens eat insects the eggs taste better.

They are also more nutritious.  Of course, you could always cut the chickens out the cycle and just eat the bugs yourself.   

[The Biscuit Queen]

I like the eggs better....no legs to get stuck between the teeth.

[Captain Courageous]

When chickens eat insects the eggs taste better.

They are also more nutritious.  Of course, you could always cut the chickens out the cycle and just eat the bugs yourself.   

Ever hear of chocolate-covered ants?