ABC News: The Hate Criminals' Best Ally
ABC News could be devoting precious time and resources looking into the precarious state of health care in the nation or the increasingly bloody war in Iraq. Instead "20/20" is preparing an investigation of the Matthew Shepard gay-bashing murder that contends it might not have been a hate crime — but simply a mugging gone wrong.
Presumably, this will make the heinous crimes committed against Shepard — a 22-year-old, gay college student who was tied to a fence, beaten and left to die — much more palatable.
The prime sources for the new "revelations"? Aaron McKinney and Russell A. Henderson, the two attackers, who will violate the plea agreements they signed at their sentencing by talking with ABC. According to the New York Post, the men agreed never to talk to the media about the case as part of the arangement that spared them the death penalty.
In a statement, Romain Patterson, one of Shepard's close friends, said: "Does it make Aaron McKinney and Russell A. Henderson any less guilty of the crime that they committed? Absolutely not."
"You just don't kick someone in the crotch over and over again unless you have a real problem with their sexuality. To imply otherwise, in my opinion, is irresponsible, and I think it's irresponsible to be giving a voice to two very guilty men."
I couldn't agree more.
Although ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider contends, "Exploring and re-examining the facts around that murder in a very thoughtful and in-depth way is the very essence of responsible journalism," I can't help but wonder — what greater purpose does this misguided "exposé" serve? Schneider must have mixed up his words, probably meaning to say the program is the very essence of "divisive and sensational journalism."
Details will follow about ways to contact ABC News as well as to boycott their news programs.
Read more here -->
Presumably, this will make the heinous crimes committed against Shepard — a 22-year-old, gay college student who was tied to a fence, beaten and left to die — much more palatable.
The prime sources for the new "revelations"? Aaron McKinney and Russell A. Henderson, the two attackers, who will violate the plea agreements they signed at their sentencing by talking with ABC. According to the New York Post, the men agreed never to talk to the media about the case as part of the arangement that spared them the death penalty.
In a statement, Romain Patterson, one of Shepard's close friends, said: "Does it make Aaron McKinney and Russell A. Henderson any less guilty of the crime that they committed? Absolutely not."
"You just don't kick someone in the crotch over and over again unless you have a real problem with their sexuality. To imply otherwise, in my opinion, is irresponsible, and I think it's irresponsible to be giving a voice to two very guilty men."
I couldn't agree more.
Although ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider contends, "Exploring and re-examining the facts around that murder in a very thoughtful and in-depth way is the very essence of responsible journalism," I can't help but wonder — what greater purpose does this misguided "exposé" serve? Schneider must have mixed up his words, probably meaning to say the program is the very essence of "divisive and sensational journalism."
Details will follow about ways to contact ABC News as well as to boycott their news programs.
Read more here -->
posted by Jim at 1:01 PM
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