yesterday i read an account of the GANG rape of an 11 year old girl

it took place in texas. there were at least 18 boys and men involved and from what i read, it looks like there are a lot more. i didn't read the article in the new york times. i forgot what source it was. i CAN tell you, i was SHOCKED at what i read (the style of writing that is). the writer said something about the entire (little) town being at odds over this rape. ODDS? what the fuck? what's to be at odds over? an 11 year old girl is gang raped by boys AND ADULT MEN who film it and take pictures of it. it's seen all over by all sorts of people and the town is of two different minds here? what? an 11 year old ASKED for it? what? an 11 year old consensually had 'sex' with twenty something boys and men? where is the division in this town? the boys were FORCED by this 11 year old (sexy siren who looked older and acted older and dressed like a slut and wore make up like a slut) TO have 'SEX' with her? one after the other that is. on and on and on. the next one then the next one then the next one. any way, the reporter of this article didn't exactly come out and say why the town was divided, ripped in half over this. i really really really wanted to know.

then this morning i read this and i shook my head knowingly. (and like i said, i didn't first read about it in the times. there are plenty of OTHER sources that have 'rape-friendly' reporting)

The New York Times' Rape-Friendly Reporting

By Mac McClelland

.......................
"Gang Rape of Schoolgirl, and Arrests, Shake Texas Town," the Times article covering the atrocities, is a collection of one perpetrator-excusing, victim-blaming insult after another. It starts right after the lede and some further information about the suspects, who include middle schoolers and a 27-year-old. Then:

The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act? [Italics mine.]

Hmm. My editors let me get away with passive voice, too, but in this case it seems inappropriate, as does the peculiar verb choice, which gives the suspects a little bit of a pass. If the allegations are proved, then the young men of Cleveland, Texas, committed these dreadful acts. However, by the story's semantics, they didn't allegedly do anything. They were coerced into it by some unnamed influence or entity....................