By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
“Brutal and Sustained”
I started this on Twitter, but I’m feeling like some other perspectives and room for depth would be worth engaging.
NPR has now acknowledged that it decided to pull down comments on the Lara Logan story because many were mean-spirited and tended to blame the victim, who is, without any doubt in my mind, Ms. Logan.
There is also a fellow (not a “guy,” a scholarly fellow) at NYU School of Law, Nir Rosen, who has now left the school because of how he tweeted about the situation, first mocking Logan for trying to one-up Anderson Cooper and then, ““jesus christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger.” He also joked at one point that the assualt was wrong, but that it would be funny if it had also happened to Anderson Cooper. (It would not be funny… but I get the sarcastic tone, which was probably a kind of self-abuse regarding his earlier tweet.)
My feeling is that the whole situation has been inflamed by the language in CBS’s press release on what happened. Please read it for yourself.
I don’t need to know the details of anyone’s assault. If they wish to keep it private – side from a debate on how not-reporting can allow a predator to continue being a predator – that is their choice and not mine or anyone else’s to debate. Moreover, I don’t think that the public should be encouraged to speculate about the details.
The CBS press release, though clearly it was not their intent, is a fuse-lighter. “Brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” is extremely aggressive language. But at the same time, it is not detailed language. And while I am not personally interested in those details, at least until sharing them is (or isn’t) of some comfort to the victim, the language encourages speculation about what degree of assault it was and how sexual it was.
Moreover, the language of her “saving,” is blurry. “Saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”
Remember, this is a press release from a network. Am I too cynical think we are likely to hear the details of this saving on 60 Minutes before summer?
There is no mention of medical treatment or hospitalization, only that she went to the hotel and then to her home. It’s not a point of debate. She didn’t have to be hospitalized to have suffered a serious assault. But it’s another question left hanging, especially in light of “brutal and sustained.”
Look… if one man grabbed her boob as she looked for her crew, it was a sexual assault and she is a victim. Period. End of story. I’m sure it was worse than that.
But the coded language and the lack of much detail, while sensitive to the victim, is a mistake in a press release. To my eye, if Ms Logan is not ready to discuss or make public what happened to her, CBS should have written something to the effect of, “Lara Logan suffered an assault in the crowd insanity in Egypt. She is safe and recovering from the events in her home in the US and asks for privacy until she determines if she will address this publicly.” The End.
And if they were going to offer that there was a “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating,” and that it took Egyptian women and 20 soldiers to save her, I don’t understand why they are too shy to use the word “rape,” if there was a rape or multiple rapes. Why is a major news organization using coded language?
Again… it’s none of my business. And Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman, as he defined “sexual relations.” And “don’t ask, don’t tell” got more gays kicked out of the military than the harshest version of the closet did.
The culture LOVES to speculate. Some people will speculate kindly and others unkindly. But generalities – even ones that seem obvious to some – are a misstep in this cultural climate. And it leaves people – none of whom should be speculating – discussing what happened to this woman as though they were friends (or enemies) of the family.
But what do you think? Does the use of extreme, but coded, language helpful or a mistake?
I had read that Logan herself wanted this acknowledged. She’s a fighter and unlikely to hide this horror.
Meanwhile, the Right Wing cesspool has risen:
I just love it when the people of the profession of “the public’s right to know” suddenly want “privacy.” Tell it to your next interview subject, Lara. Of course CBS has no further comment. Wouldn’t wanna impugn the “peacefulness” of “Religion of Peace” animals, would we? Now, if they were Christians or Jews, well, then there would be comments galore.
So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows. Or so we’d hope. But in the case of the media vis-a-vis Islam, that’s a hope that’s generally unanswered.
This never happened to her or any other mainstream media reporter when Mubarak was allowed to treat his country of savages in the only way they can be controlled.
Now that’s all gone. How fitting that Lara Logan was “liberated” by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the “liberation.”
Hope you’re enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdilllullah [praise allah].
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/33031/how-muslims-celebrate-victory-egypts-peaceful-moderate-democratic-protesters/
It was not rape. She was NOT sexually assaulted. Laura and here crew were taken into custody. They did not like being handcuffed and roughed so they concocted this story.
1. This is a tragedy.
2. It is a real story and the details – should – be known. I know it throws people into a tiff when the victim is a reporter covering a story, but then that becomes the story and this should be front page news. Reporters cover tragedy all the time…no reason why this should be any different even if it is awkward.
3. It is part of the story because it shows a fissure in the narrative. The mainstream media narrative on this has been “good Muslim rebels vs. evil Western backed dictator”. This shows that that narrative is false, and again, the media is so unwilling to even begin to understand the brutality that comes to women in Islamist countries.
4. The term used, “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating,” to me suggest multiple gang rapes. True unmitigated horror. If that is what happened, then that should be told. The term sexual assault is too vaugue; legally it can mean anything from rape to a mere tweak of the buttock. Why is the left so afraid of confronting this issue?
5. Guaranteed, that either before the end of this television season or during next, at least one of the legal or medical shows on tv will feature an episode where a blonde journalist is gang raped by a bunch of evengelicals at a Tea Party rally while a bunch of Muslims come to her rescue. Guaranteed.
6. The Western progressive left, is out to bloody lunch when it comes to even remotely understanding fundamentalist Islam. Logan is a victim, but she is a victim not only of fundamentalist Islam, but of western ignorance. I hope she continues to report, and the next time she is in a newsroom and a a group of her collegues is preparing a piece on the evangelical theocracy or the patriarchal evils of Catholics while lamenting the post 9/11 backlash against the “religion of peace”, she can loudly clear her throat and set the record straight.
Welcome to the revolution.
I agree with some of the comments here. The term “brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating” indicates the worst horror possible for Miss Logan.
But please, all the other stuff about “welcome to the revolution” and “Meanwhile, the Right Wing cesspool has risen”.
Please, tone down the rhetoric.
And as for truther… I just shake my head and wonder.
David, thanks for picking this up from our (and mb other) conversations. My point was that “sustained and brutal” was pretty obvious code language and Rosen seems/ed smart enough to figure that out. Not too interested in joining what is becoming a right wing debate(online, not you) but I hazard to guess, the rape word wasn’t used not just out of respect, but also due to lawyers getting in the way and saying not to go that far, as they tend to do. Anyway, as a man not too quick to see problems here, I do find the wording strong enough to warrant a modicum of respect even if other parts of his argument were valid.
Pope,
Y’know…I will take your point. “Welcome to the Revolution” was glib and not necessary. I stand by everything else I wrote.
Arabic news sources are reporting she was beaten and gang raped, surrounded by a mob, vaginally, orally, and anally by at least 50 men.
This was a brief topic of discussion on Jezebel…
One poster said that the media use the term “sexual assault” precisely _because_ it does cover everything David mentioned in his essay (groping, rape, etc.). Do we even know if CBS News has all the details of what happened? If they don’t, it stands to reason that they would want to use the broadest language possible.
At the same time, “brutal and sustained” is quite descriptive…sounds like someone’s emotion over what happened to a colleague got the best of them.
I guess my question is, Jennifer, that if they didn’t know, why describe it at all?
Sorry, The Pope. I suggest you read what’s being written and discussed on the Right. Schlussel teling Ms. Logan to enjoy it is repulsive. Why shouldn’t that kind of inhuman response be called out?
Well, “brutal and sustained” may not be very detailed language, but it is more detailed than “sexual assault” alone. It seems to me that in the interest of truth, CBS should have only put forth what could be confirmed. If that meant an even vaguer report, so be it. If the worst happened, it will come out soon enough. As it is, we’ve got people offering “opinions” of what happened that run the gamut from “hey, take it easy with the handcuffs” to 50 gang rapists. I’m not familiar enough with Logan to know if she’s a “war-monger,” but I know this — until the truth about the incident is clear, it’s probably wise to steer clear of speculation about her level of blame, or whether or not she deserves martyr status (as Professor Dumbass learned the hard way). And christian, for the life of me I don’t know what point you’re making with “she knew the risks.”
Yancy, JEEBUS CHRIST. Did you note that those are not my words but of Debbie Schlussel?
Worth pointing out, I think, that CBS lied outright and claimed she was “at home recovering,” when, in fact, she was hospitalized.
But that information also suggests that the assault was more severe than CBS’ release suggested as well.
One also has to wonder whether CBS would have sat on anyone else’s assault in that mob scene for five days before issuing a non-specific press release. (rhetorical question)
It is a strange thing when an event is seen through the prism of limited information and predetermined biases. It makes it very hard to put your emotional feet down in any firm place.
No, christian, I didn’t. Didn’t notice the colon. Quotes would’ve been nice! Anyway, sorry. And fie on Schlussel.
That was my 4th attempt at posting this. Now watch them all go through.
“There is no mention of medical treatment or hospitalization, only that she went to the hotel and then to her home. It’s not a point of debate. She didn’t have to be hospitalized to have suffered a serious assault. But it’s another question left hanging, especially in light of “brutal and sustained.””
gee, DP, for someone who bangs on about journalistic truth and fact-checking before publishing, perhaps you should take your own advice and check your facts, then update/edit when you’ve published something incomplete or inaccurate.
i didn’t know anything about this until just now, but after having just read a few reports every single one says after the assault she was reunited with her crew, went back to her hotel and was flown immediately out of egypt by her network on a chartered flight to the US, where she was immediately hospitalised for ‘serious’ injuries, and is now home after several days in the hospital, recovering further. the facts are being reported, as they come to light.
Is anybody else aware of the stuff about her personal life? Take it with a grainy of salt, it was in the NY Post. She was an embedded reporter with CBS and had a couple of soldiers, one of whom was married, fighting over her, and at least one of them is the father of her child. This is all an added pilling on about that. This is all about conservatives punishing a woman who is obviously brave and sexually aware. Bottom line is she’s the victim here and should be treated as such.
Leah… you should read more carefully before going off.
There are dozens of variations on the story out there. I take none of them at face value about now. But I was clearly speaking about he CBS press release.
CBS only went public because other outlets found out.
Dave is right to question WTF is actually going on with CBS. The language is purposeful obfuscation, clarifies nothing and only sensationalizes.
Were they afraid of stepping on a narrative, like Nicol mentioned? I don’t think so. I think it’s more craven, that all involved were debating how and when was the best opportunity to exploit. It is sweeps month, after all.
Arabic newspapers are wrong about 90% of the time. Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya are somewhat reliable sources, but the British papers or AP will have the truth first, which IMO, is why CBS is muddying the waters. They, (CBS news), literally are the story and do not want this perceived as chum for the 24/7 cycle.
As for the story itself, a lot doesn’t add up. She was in downtown Cairo, for godsakes, not the middle of the desert near a prison. It’s almost impossible for this to have gone down like The Accused, but that’s what CBS has lead people to think.
“going off”? yes, my comment was quite a humdinger.
i read what you wrote quite carefully, DP, as always. yes, the CBS release weirdly leaves out the hospitalisation, which i would suspect is a reporting error. several reports by (one must assume) reliable outlets have subsequently filled in that blank. isn’t it your job as a journo to keep abreast of the facts and, given you have weighed in on this subject based on an incomplete press release, thus amend your statement to reflect the actual circumstances as they come to light? you query the wording of the ‘sexual assault’ report based on her non-hospitalisation, which turned out to be an omission. but perhaps you’re just interested in publishing your opinions based on incomplete material, that’s your prerogative of course.
“As for the story itself, a lot doesn’t add up. She was in downtown Cairo, for godsakes, not the middle of the desert near a prison. It’s almost impossible for this to have gone down like The Accused, but that’s what CBS has lead people to think.”
wtf?
Or perhaps as has been reported Lara Logan gave permission to release the story. She is fierce fighter. Again.
And Nicol you would be an expert on middle eastern politics because of what, reading Mark Steyn? I guess we can now conclude the millions of people participating in these demonstrations are terrorists right? Maybe the world is a little more complex than what you’re reading in the weekly standard.
Sorry, Leah. Yes, if you dipped in and Googled over the last 4 hours, after President Obama called the victim at the hospital and CBS acknowledged that she was released from a hospital today, you might think that this was always reported this way. But you’d be wrong. And that’s part of the point here.
The story wasn’t reported at all until yesterday, four days after it happened. And most of the coverage yesterday was keyed off of the CBS release and nothing else.
This entry is primarily about what CBS published and the flare-ups over it in the last 24 hours. No one has put many of the facts into print yet, as best I can tell. And I spent over an hour today trying to dig up any reportage in overseas papers. The story will continue to evolve. And then, maybe, I will be struck by another element of the event that is inspired by more incomplete material.
Next time, read more carefully before you go off.
Bitplayer – This is all about conservatives punishing a woman who is obviously brave and sexually aware.
How does conservatism explain the NYU prof who, because she was front-and-center on Iraq, called her a “war monger” so Cairo was somehow just deserts? He “punished” her in very demeaning language and that’s without getting into his swipe at Anderson Cooper, which is buried in double-meanings.
Logan is known because of her Iraq melodrama. That’s the unspoken question as to WTF CBS was thinking with this release.
“her Iraq melodrama. ”
Hey Martin, what do you say about this melodrama?
“The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German and American intelligence officials who dealt with his claims, has told the Guardian that he fabricated tales of mobile bioweapons trucks and clandestine factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime, from which he had fled in 1995.
“Maybe I was right, maybe I was not right,” he said. “They gave me this chance. I had the chance to fabricate something to topple the regime. I and my sons are proud of that and we are proud that we were the reason to give Iraq the margin of democracy.”
The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/15/defector-admits-wmd-lies-iraq-war
Christian – what that has to do with anything regarding Logan.
“Logan is known because of her Iraq melodrama.”
What does this mean? Are you actually calling her assault “melodrama” or refering to her long history documenting the war? You’re so disingenuous.
DP: huh?
i’m fully aware that the CBS press release was incomplete when you posted your opinion piece, that the release has just recently been updated, as i clearly explained in my second comment. as is so often the case, you completely miss my point, which i thought was pretty clear all things considered. i’ll put it this way: if the CBS press release has now been updated for accuracy, shouldn’t your commentary on said item make a note of that, since it renders much of your speculation moot? (wow, if you thought my original comment was “going off”, what must you think of this one? going apeshit? ballistic? nuclear? POSTAL??? the mind boggles)
Christian –
Wow, you really don’t know what you’re talking about this time.
Logan was one of the “respected” MSM by the right during Bush. Logan was overtly partisan to the DOD before and during Iraq. That’s why the NYU prof called her a “war monger”. When word came out about the affair and pregnancy, she became a story unto herself. An affair, in theater, with a military man, that ends up in pregnancy, is melodrama worthy of a nighttime soap.
CBS is fully aware of this and how the rest of the news orgs would look at such a unclear statement when Logan is at the center.
I find your position on this ironically amusing, Christian. You’re the one who agrees with Limbaugh and I’m not.
Again, let’s try and tone down the rhetoric. Why does this issue, which is a human issue, have to be carved down the middle and scrapped over by the left and the right? Both sides debase themselves.
Nir Rosen, far left, called Logan a warmonger who “is going to become a martyr.” He wrote that Logan “had to outdo Anderson. She was probably groped like thousands of other women. It would have been funny if it happened to Anderson, too.”
Debbie Schlussel, far right, says Logan should have expected such treatment from Muslim “animals.” “How fitting that Lara Logan was ‘liberated’ by Muslims in Liberation Square.”
Pope – I’m with you. Talk to Christian. He’s goes after everything in two dimensions, left or right, with or without the facts at hand because nothing else is of interest to him.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/cbs_shouldnt_have_withheld_lar.html
Martin, you’re the one who always filters it through your political screen, i.e., trying to blame CBS for something. You referenced Logan’s “melodrama.”
Typically, you of course are politicizing since what you — and the WP editorial you just linked by bipolar hawk Richard Cohen (serprize!) — care about is trying to paint these Egyptians as brutal thugs not the freedom lovers others claim (Cohen already claimed Egyptian Democracy would be a “nightmare”). It’s the Right Wing who have expressed utter fear at Mubarack stepping down, i.e., Beck and his chalkboard of crazy. And evidence points to the attackers being Pro-Mubarack, not just a gang of wilding bystanders. The facts will come out, and Logan will certainly be upfront and reveal her truth.
CBS wanted to dignify its employee after a brutal attack, and there’s nothing suspect about that. Rape victims are granted annonmyity, and while one can argue the attack should have been reported immediately with an unnamed subject, there’s nothing bizarre about their delayed response.
I don’t care if Ann Coulter was the subject, anybody saying she deserved her attack is slime.