UN Sex Scandal vs. Abu Ghraib
U.N. staff and soldiers have raped and sexually abused 150 Congolese girls between 12 and 15 years of age, according to the LA Times. The U.N. has known about this since early this year, yet Kofi Annan has the temerity to criticize the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops in Abu Ghraib.
Despite the long, ongoing investigations at the U.N., this is only Day One of press coverage. I did a Nexis search on the topic from Jan. 1, 2003 through October and there was NO coverage of this scandal in U.S. media. By comparison, a search for Abu Ghraib for the same period quickly stopped because Nexis won't list more than 1,000 articles in a search. I narrowed the search to August only and squeaked in with 952 hits.
Reuters moved an item on the U.N. sexual abuse scandal yesterday, and only two newspapers in the entire U.S. picked it up this morning (The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, according to Nexis). The LA Times reported its own story (25" on page 3, a major story but off the front page) and its sister paper, the Chicago Tribune, picked up a short from that.
WHERE ARE THE HUNDREDS OF EDITORS, REPORTERS AND BROADCASTERS THAT WERE SO QUICK TO JUMP ON THE ABU GHRAIB STORY? Do teen and pre-teen girls in Africa not deserve coverage, while suspected terrorists in Iraq deserve months of it? Is rape and sexual abuse OK to ignore, while stripping suspected terrorists demands ongoing, intense Scott-Peterson-esque coverage? Are there no investigative reporters assigned to the U.N.? Are there no reporters in Congo?
Again, this is Day One. Any bets as to how long this story will play?
Despite the long, ongoing investigations at the U.N., this is only Day One of press coverage. I did a Nexis search on the topic from Jan. 1, 2003 through October and there was NO coverage of this scandal in U.S. media. By comparison, a search for Abu Ghraib for the same period quickly stopped because Nexis won't list more than 1,000 articles in a search. I narrowed the search to August only and squeaked in with 952 hits.
Reuters moved an item on the U.N. sexual abuse scandal yesterday, and only two newspapers in the entire U.S. picked it up this morning (The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, according to Nexis). The LA Times reported its own story (25" on page 3, a major story but off the front page) and its sister paper, the Chicago Tribune, picked up a short from that.
WHERE ARE THE HUNDREDS OF EDITORS, REPORTERS AND BROADCASTERS THAT WERE SO QUICK TO JUMP ON THE ABU GHRAIB STORY? Do teen and pre-teen girls in Africa not deserve coverage, while suspected terrorists in Iraq deserve months of it? Is rape and sexual abuse OK to ignore, while stripping suspected terrorists demands ongoing, intense Scott-Peterson-esque coverage? Are there no investigative reporters assigned to the U.N.? Are there no reporters in Congo?
Again, this is Day One. Any bets as to how long this story will play?
posted by Laer at 1:00 PM
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