OpEd: “The liberal media”
I’m aghast at the media coverage of the Kobe Bryant rape trial. It used to be that the alleged victim’s identity was protected. Today, not only is the alleged victim’s identity not protected [she was recently named in a tabloid newspaper], but the case is being judged in the media as well. A recent Reuters news release quoted Bryant’s defense team “claimed that the woman may have had sex with two other men before and after her encounter with Bryant.”
I may not be an attorney, or even a judge, but I can definitely say I’m more than irritated that this statement was in a Reuters news release. It is not news! The victim’s sexual history has no bearing on whether or not she was raped.
While we often hear about “the liberal media,” it is very seldom that we have a definition of the term “liberal” – given or provided in a generous and openhanded way; lacking moral restraint; associated with ideals of individualism especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives [Merriam-Webster]. What this tells us, is that the true definition is ambiguous at best.
What we see going on in the press today is far from “liberalism,” but more akin to extremism. Let us not leave the case to a judge and jury to decide, but play it out in the media by demonizing the victim and championing the sports figure the better to sell newspapers and magazines.
If the media has ever been liberal, it is so in the economic sense – that it freely reports and manipulates popular culture in whatever fashion best serves its economic interests. In the current age, media companies are the worlds largest conglomerates and profit enormously by pushing whatever agenda improves their annual financial statements, truth or justice be damned.