(no subject)

[rm]

A journalist must, at times, tell us what is obvious or provide details that perhaps seem extraneous.

It will often be noted, for example, when an interview has been conducted by telephone so that a reader may make their own determination as to how confident they feel in the notion that the person interviewed really possessed the identity claimed.

In matters of the obvious, journalists will often remind us that water expands when frozen: a fact most of us learned in third grade and forgot by some summer in college when we put water bottles in the freezer to cool them for a trip to the beach only to later discover that they had cracked or exploded.

In today's New York Times, there's a piece on how immigrant populations (specifically Somali) test the resources and practices of a particular medical center in Minneapolis. At one point, the piece notes the high percentages of Somali and Eritrean refugees that have experienced torture.

We are then told, "the torture of women frequently involves rape."

Water expands when it is frozen. A person on the telephone may or may not be who they claim.

Facts of the universe are presented in clinical cadence.

Who was reading that, that somehow didn't already know?

To clarify: I am not expressing a problem with this. Nor am I expressing confusion -- I used to work for the AP. I am expressing that the sentence made my eyebrows lift -- a) that we have to say it and b) that it made it through whatever guff I imagine it was the subject of in the editorial process as it is an uncited remark that, believe me, many newsroom folk I have known would have viewed as "inflammatory."

Comments

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

To not remind would be to not report.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I think there are a lot of people who know intellectually, but who forget, or don't think of it, or let the idea pass by unnoticed because they don't think it's a part of their world or their lives.

Really, I kind of want those people to have to know it right then in context, and remember. Unfortunately, a lot of them will just let that mention pass by, too.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's also interesting as a fact without a citation. Considering the general fail of the NYT on anything about women (and a whole lot of other groups) I wonder how much guff there was about it in the editorial process.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

See Also: people who let these things pass by?

(I jest, but only a little.)

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

Most people don't realise that (I have known a lot of women who had no idea about even the most frequently cited rape statistics). Additionally, a lot of journalism sensationalizes it, giving the impression it is exceptional.

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

I think there are plenty of people reading who could stand to hear it again. And again. In black and white. Rape=torture. Yep. I find I have no problem with that whatsoever.

[cozzene.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about this topic a few days ago. I wonder how much of the need of men to protect women had to do with US policies against women in combat because of the fear of them being taken captive and raped as a form of torture.

*impressed to see anything in the NYT regarding women in a sympathetic light.

[fuyukodachi.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain that a lot of people have no idea how common rape is -- anywhere.

I was even, when I looked at some of the figures for certain groups in Africa, shocked at how nearly no one gets through life without experiencing it multiple times, and how it is basically a given that if you go out for food or water, it will happen to you.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

I will say, however, that noting when an interview has taken place by phone is almost never done now. In fact, we rarely note when it takes place by email anymore. The burden to confirm identity is on us, and is invisible. This is new; when I started in the biz twelve years ago, my editors were so net-phobic they would not allow me to conduct interviews by email or quote emails. Now it's routine. But we must confirm that the person to whom we're speaking is the right person, certainly. So far, this has not burned us.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I learned the phone thing in school, and I never see it now, except, interestingly with non-important persons, who I suppose it's harder to confirm that they are who they are. I also remember the the email interview taboo, this from the 90s and working in, amusingly, the Computer Assisted Reporting unit.

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

Stating that Torture includes Rape is fine with me.

Many people tend to think of torture as the stuff they see on "24". They don't think about the fact that real torturers don't have to worry about not doing things that wouldn't pass the tv censors.