{"id":1348,"date":"2014-12-10T12:35:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T12:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2016-01-24T21:14:42","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T21:14:42","slug":"seeking-corroboration-isnt-disrespectful-its-useful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=1348","title":{"rendered":"Seeking corroboration isn’t disrespectful \u2013 it’s useful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"141210Talbot\"Dec. 10, 2014<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than a decade ago,\u00a0I wrote about the McMartin preschool case<\/a>, and other satanic ritual child abuse accusations that turned out to be false. Back then, the slogan many supporters of the accusations brandished was, \u2018Believe the Children.\u2019 It was an antidote to skepticism about real claims of child abuse, just as today, \u2018Believe the Victims\u2019 is a reaction to a long history of callous oversight of rape accusations.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Believe the Victims\u2019 makes sense as a starting presumption, but a presumption of belief should never preclude questions. It\u2019s not wrong or disrespectful for reporters to ask for corroboration, or for editors to insist on it. Truth-seeking won\u2019t undermine efforts to prevent campus sexual assault and protect its victims; it should make them stronger and more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 From \u201c<\/em>Reporting on Rape<\/em><\/a>\u201d by Margaret Talbot at newyorker.com (Dec. 7)<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the\u00a0prosecution\u2019s strategic secrecy<\/a>, the pursuit of corroboration in the Little Rascals case presented an enormous challenge. But news coverage could been far more skeptical and revealing \u2013 perhaps even game-changing. The editor of the News & Observer\u00a0certainly thought so<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dec. 10, 2014 \u201cMore than a decade ago,\u00a0I wrote about the McMartin preschool case, and other satanic ritual child abuse accusations that turned out to be false. Back then, the slogan many supporters of the accusations brandished was, \u2018Believe the Children.\u2019 It was an antidote to skepticism about real claims of child abuse, just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}