An explosive, front-page investigation on Sunday (5/10/09) in the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) "repeatedly" returned teachers and aides credibly accused of child molestation back to classrooms, and these individuals then molested children again. The jaw-dropping story, by Times staffer Jason Song, is incredibly angering, and the tales of abuse are stomach-turning. (An accompanying audio slideshow at the Times web site is quite disturbing.)
In the last several years, media outlets have endlessly ripped and tarred the Catholic Church for mishandling episodes from decades ago. Meanwhile, these episodes in LAUSD are all quite recent. One documented case dates back to just last year!
Where's the outrage from the rest of the media?
- At Google News, the only link I can find about the scandal is the original story in the Times.
- The web sites of ABC7 Los Angeles, NBC4 Los Angeles, and CBS2 Los Angeles currently carry nothing about the story and give no indication they've covered this at all.
- If KFI radio's popular morning host Bill Handel, a perpetual Church basher, announced the story this morning (5/11/09), I missed it. Instead, I tuned in this morning at 7:40 am to hear Handel spending several minutes on the story about a Catholic priest several thousand miles away in Florida who had an affair. Handel then proceeded to voice several falsehoods about the Church. (See below.)
KABC's Doug McIntyre deserves credit for interviewing Song this morning on his radio show and at least spending a few minutes on the issue.
Meanwhile: Is the Times finally turning a corner in their reporting?
For several years, we have reported on the disparate coverage by the Times and other mainstream outlets when reporting the awful crime of child abuse. While the Times and others seem to trumpet each-and-every decades-old allegation against a Catholic priest, they have either downplayed or ignored current-day scandals in our nation's schools. As we've written before, "When it comes to the abuse of children, it sure seems like the national media doesn't get too worked up unless the words 'Cardinal,' 'bishop,' or 'priest' is in someone's job title." (For a catalog of this disparity, see "Los Angeles Times: Clergy Abuse and School Abuse" at TheMediaReport.com.)
A couple questions remain, however:
- Will the Times follow up on this report and continue to uncover other egregious cases? Remember how the Boston Globe handled the Catholic Church abuse scandal in 2002: It wasn't just one article. The Globe ran a mind-blowing 989 articles related to the scandal in the 2002 calendar year alone! (Yes - that's an average of almost three a day! See for yourself.) On McIntyre's show this morning (5/11/09, 9 am hour), Song told the audience, "Since the Rooney incident, the number of teachers 'housed' - that's the term they use for being placed on administrative leave while charges against the employee are being investigated - has almost tripled in number."
- As the rest of the national media tracked the Church scandals in Boston several years ago and expanded on it, will mainstream outlets give this outrageous scandal the wide attention it deserves?
Stay tuned.
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Falsehoods by Bill Handel: 1. Priestly celibacy in the Church only came about "1,000 years after Jesus." Wrong. The Council of Elvira, circa 309 A.D., shows that priestly celibacy was already being firmly practiced by the Church. 2. "Gays can't receive communion." Nope. Just having homosexual desires does not bar anyone from receiving the Eucharist. 3. "Divorced Catholics cannot receive communion." Wrong again. That's another myth.
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Previous: "Not the Catholic Church? MSM Mum About Huge L.A. School Sex Abuse Scandal"
See also: TheMediaReport.com: "Los Angeles Times: Clergy Abuse and School Abuse"
—Dave Pierre is the creator of TheMediaReport.com and a contributor to NewsBusters.
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The media as usual...MIA
May 11, 2009 - 21:08 ET by P. AaronIf the news media had only one eye open, they might be 1/2 decent. But they've got their template and they're sticking to it until they're down to their last reporter.
All I can say is...
May 11, 2009 - 21:27 ET by motherbeltThe double standard is simply jaw-dropping.
They might say "Wow, that sucks!" But at least they'll say "Wow!" -Duff Goldman, the Ace of Cakes
Stay tuned?
May 11, 2009 - 21:40 ET by needleSure go ahead and stay tuned if you like; but I suggest that a) you do not hold you breath, and b) besides “stay[ing] tuned” to dead air, you should arrange to have other things to occupy your time and interest.
It is a safe bet – based on the fact that this issue has gone nowhere in the past – that this is gong nowhere in the future. And why?
Well, here is a hint: What is the Catholic Church’s position on abortion? Hmmm? And what is the thoroughly liberal teachers unions’ [joined at the hip with the Democratic party] position on abortion? Is there anyone sober enough to tie his shoes who seriously thinks the Degenerate Media is going to go for the jugular of those unions that support what Ann Coulter calls the most sacred rite of Liberalism?
BTW, don’t forget it is these very teachers who promote sex – both heterosexual and homosexual – starting in kindergarten, including abortion, as part of Democrats mandated curriculum. What is so extraordinary about a few of teachers running a few demonstrations / lab experiments with some of the students?
What is remarkable is the the LA times is actually reporting this story at all.
Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.
No Catholic priests involved?
May 12, 2009 - 02:30 ET by Indiana JoeBut... but... but... we ALL know that only the Catholics molest children! We've heard about it often enough, it must be true!
So everyone wags their fingers at Bishops who played "hide the pedophile" back in the 60s, and every 30-something person with "repressed memories" is an open-and-shut case against some retired priest. Here's the same exact thing in public schools, but with a couple of major differences:
1. Priests were accused of molesting mainly altar boys. Altar boy is a voluntary position. Just because you attend Catholic school doesn't mean you have to be an altar boy. (Just btw, that was the "unmentionable" part of the priest scandals; they were virtually all homosexual molestations.
2. All children under the age of 16 must attend school. For the majority, that means public school. A Catholic student can transfer to a public school to escape a predator, but many public school students do not have the means to transfer to a Catholic school. So they're even more locked into this sick situation.
And the administrators of these public schools sit on their hands and play "hide the pedophile," just as some bishops have been accused of doing. Where's the outrage? Where are the "victim groups" clamoring for "justice?" There's an easy answer to both those questions, and I'll give you a hint: where is there more money? In public schools or in the Catholic Church?
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."-John Adams
Exactly Right
May 12, 2009 - 11:24 ET by Tom Paine"Priests were accused of molesting mainly altar boys. Altar boy is a voluntary position. Just because you attend Catholic school doesn't mean you have to be an altar boy. (Just btw, that was the "unmentionable" part of the priest scandals; they were virtually all homosexual molestations."
You hit the nail right on the head, Joe. While Pedophiles prey almost exclusively on prepubescent victims of either sex, the victims in the priest scandal were almost all post pubescent males. Now change the sex of the victims from male to female and tell me if the mainstream media would have described this as "Pedophilia" or heterosexual rape? The elephant in the room that the MSM dare not point out is that these attacks were most probably the acts of predatory gay clergy. This would be in direct opposition to their twin templates that (a)The Catholic Church is the cause of all evil in the world and (b)Homosexuals are models of virtue in society.
The Communists are
May 12, 2009 - 04:05 ET by RR GOPThe Communists are fascinated with psychology and see any social deviancy as something to be studied and embraced. Because, after all, these individuals are just acting according to their true nature (see Jean Jacques Rousseau for clarification).
Creeps and criminals are not to be shunned or reviled, but helped with the patient understanding of Liberal pseudo-science. Besides, they are aware that Freud pointed out that little kids have innate sexual desires so they aren't being molested at all, but merely helped to fulfill their natural fantasies.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).
I am a "fallen catholic",
May 12, 2009 - 08:06 ET by seaniepI am a "fallen catholic", my wife is a lutheran, we watched that movie "doubt" the other night, I mentioned how much fun it seems to be in hollywood to make anti-catholic movies, her response was about the whole child molestation thing, I told her about the LA Schools, she did not believe me because she doesn't see it on the news . . .
I hate the New York Times more than it hates the US Military
Teacher child abuse.
May 12, 2009 - 09:09 ET by sevenOne of the liberals said that underpaying teachers is the reason. Belive it was sykes.
One of the reasons for vouchers. Leave the dangerous government schools.
Yeah...that's it. They're
May 12, 2009 - 09:40 ET by moderncommentaries83Yeah...that's it. They're "poor" so they molest kids.
Guess what, Sykes (or whatever liberal said that asinine remark): I grew up "poor", too. I bet that most teachers - even starting out - make more than I do at the moment.
Let's see (looks up starting salaries for teachers in LA)...
According to this chart, the lowest starting salary for a teacher in LAUSD is $45,637. I make $28,000/year. So that's 1.6 times my annual salary. Should I be a child molester then, too, because I don't get paid enough?
And, didn't Obama vow to knock down the "rich" a peg or two? Well, in my book, teachers are richer than I am. So they don't need to be paid more. /sarcasm
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
When anyone but a catholic
May 12, 2009 - 11:02 ET by wiwfWhen anyone but a catholic priest does, it's suddenly ok.
The Rocky Mountain Collegian: Illustrating Idiocy