Now That's "Entertainment"?

Fresh on the heels of Reuters' continued failure of journalistic ethics (as WIMN's Voices' own Melissa McEwan describes here, the wire service yet again placed two stories about rape in their "Oddly Enough" section), comes another glaring example for our "Miscategorized News" files, this time from United Press International.

On November 1, UPI reported that MTV'sVincent Margera, known as Don Vito on "Viva La Bam," was

"convicted on two counts of sexual assault on a child for fondling the breasts of two girls -- one 12 and the other 14 -- during a photo op and autograph session at the Colorado Mills skate park last year..."

According to UPI, upon hearing the verdict Margera threw a tantrum in the courtroom, knocking down his female defense attorney, flailing himself on the ground and cursing up a storm... not exactly brimming with remorse:

"'I didn't (expletive) do nothing. You can rot in (expletive) hell,' yelled Margera..."

So, where did UPI choose to place this crime story? In the entertainment section, with the word Entertainment in bold, red letters right at the top of the piece.

You know, because sexual assault of young girls is oh so entertaining.

FYI, to put this in perspective, this means that a headline about a media personality molesting junior high school girls ran sandwiched in between headlines from the same week such as, "Mulder, Scully reunite for 'X-Files' film," "Exhausted Meat Loaf shortens U.K. concert," and "New Spice Girls video to debut on Web."

NOTE: Have you seen examples of miscategorized news? Women In Media & News wants to know. Either post the headlines or blurbs from stories (with links/attribution whenever possible) to WIMN's Voices here or email your examples to info[at]wimnonline[dot]org and we'll help you hold the outlets responsible accountable.

This post originally appeared at WIMN's Voices: A Group Blog on Women and the Media , a project of Women In Media & News, the national women's media analysis, education and advocacy group. To bring Jennifer L. Pozner to speak to your campus or community group, or to send WIMN blog tips, email info [at] wimnonline [dot] org. To subscribe to WIMN's free media alert list, see the Action Center at http://www.wimnonline.org/action/.

Comments

[GeeBee]

A good followup posting would be the email/postal addresses where one can complain to these assorted media outlets. AP for one seems to be hard to contact (I only wanted to complain about grammar, but this sort of issue is much more important, obviously).

[roniweb]

Thanks Jennifer. A friend & I were outraged over this a few years ago, but felt unable to take any real action other than emails to Yahoo, Reuters, AP, etc. I'm glad that WIMN and Shakesville is on top of this.