Why Is the Media Glossing Over Child Rape?

Poynter delves into the media’s insistence to label the Penn State child rape and alleged underage sex trafficking scandal as a “sex scandal.”

Memo to headline writers: Child sex abuse is not a ‘sex scandal’

Spurred by Xeni Jardin’s tweet about coverage of charges of child sexual abuse at Penn State — “A ‘sex scandal’ is when someone has an affair. Raping children is something else” — I looked for examples of news outlets using the phrase. A few headlines culled from Google News:

• “Hyde5: Five thoughts on the Penn State sex scandal (SunSentinel.com)
• “What parents can learn from the nightmarish Penn State sex scandal” (NJ.com)
• “Penn State sex scandal: New details” (ABC News)
• “Penn State sex scandal engulfing revered Joe Paterno” (Associated Press)
• “Amazon is hit by fallout from the Penn State sex scandal” (The Christian Science Monitor)
• “NCAA President Mark Emmert unlikely to punish Penn State for alleged sex scandal” (Daily News)

Nearly every media outlet is calling this a “sex scandal.”

Huffington Post: The Penn State Sex Scandal: It’s About Leadership

Fox: Penn State’s Top Recruit Backs Away from Commitment Amid Sex Scandal

ABC: Penn State Sex Scandal Spreads to Texas‎

Globe and Mail Penn State sex scandal now all about JoPa‎

Standard Speaker: PSU scandal elicits mixed reactions at local campus

WaPo: Penn State sex scandal engulfing Paterno

As has been mentioned, a “sex scandal” suggests consensual sex between adults. The term is wholly inadequate and misleading in the case of the Penn State story. An untold number of little boys were raped by an iconic assistant coach who also allegedly trafficked them out to university donors. This is far beyond a “sex scandal,” especially when you consider the possible relation to the case of the missing DA:

The district attorney who didn’t prosecute former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky for sex crimes in 1998 went missing in 2005, a fact that is now getting a lot of attention.

Ray Gricar was the long-time district attorney of Centre County, the home of Penn State’s main campus. He was months from retirement when he simply vanished on his way home to Bellefonte, Pa.

The mystery surrounding Gricar’s disappearance in 2005 was the subject of several national TV shows and an effort involving the FBI and state investigators.

The attorney’s car was found in Lewisburg, Pa., about 60 miles east of Bellefonte, about 12 hours after he called home. Several months later, his laptop computer and a destroyed hard drive were found.

But no one found Gricar’s body.

It’s dangerous to varnish over the heinousness of this case by referring to it as a “sex scandal.” It’s a story of child predation and if all these allegations prove to be true, Jerry Sandusky will become the most monstrous child predators in American history and Penn State will never, ever recover.