LIVE AT FIVE: 01.16.13

“Michael didn’t know the Jane Doe in this case. . . . He left the party around midnight on Saturday, went to McDonald’s and then to a friend’s house. She was leaving just a few moments after he arrived at the second house. He saw her leave with two guys. . . . There were three witnesses to the alleged rape at a third house and two of them came back to the house where Michael made the 12-minute video at around 2 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. People at the other house came back and talked about what happened. The kid shooting the video of Michael was not a witness to the alleged rape. The video was made at a friend’s house and not at the house where the alleged incident occurred.”
— Dennis McNamara, attorney for Michael Nodianos

“An Ohio State University freshman shown in a video joking about a teenage girl allegedly raped by two high school football players will not be returning to school for the spring semester, his attorney says. . . .
“[S]omeone has hacked into his client’s email and social media accounts and the email accounts of his family members. . . .
“McNamara said people [had] attempted to find Nodianos’ class schedule and even came to his dormitory looking for him.”
— CBS News

How did a sexual assault case involving three 16-year-olds — a girl and her two accused attackers — turn into a digital lynch-mob that has forced Michael Nodianos to drop out of college and defamed the entire town of Steubenville, Ohio? Lee Stranahan has been examining those questions, and a disturbing “story behind the story” is now beginning to emerge, which the national media seem reluctant to address.

Stranahan’s item headlined “Steubenville Rape Case: Everything You Know Is Wrong” identifies misinformation that has circulated about the case, including the unsubstantiated claim that there is (or was) a cover-up which bloggers and Anonymous hackers exposed.

Let’s start with the notorious 12-minute video in which Nodianos, an academic scholarship student who graduated from Steubenville in June, jokes about the alleged victim in the case. As Stranahan has pointed out (“Steubenville Probable Cause Transcript: The Infamous Video“) this video has been both the subject and source of much mythology about the case. Some believe that the video was recorded at the scene of the alleged rape, that Nodianos was a witness to (or participant in) the alleged rape and that nobody knew about the video until it was posted online by Anonymous — all of which is wrong, wrong, wrong:

The video was recorded in the basement of a home where, as Nadianos’s attorney explained, the girl had left about two hours before the video was recorded.
The alleged sexual assault(s) occurred in a car en route to another party, and also at that party at another home.
Detectives were aware of the video, as court transcripts make clear, by Aug. 14 or 15 — just two or three days after the alleged attack.

Keep in mind Stranahan’s caveat about his reporting: “This is not defending the suspects or attacking the accuser.”

Why did Nodianos become such an object of hate? Well, he made cruel jokes on the video about how drunk the girl was. He had seen her briefly — before she left for the third party she attended that night — in a state of extreme intoxication. The New York Times, Dec. 17:

At the parties, the girl had so much to drink that she was unable to recall much from that night, and nothing past midnight, the police said. The girl began drinking early on, according to an account that the police pieced together from witnesses, including two of the three Steubenville High athletes who testified in court in October. By 10 or 10:30 that night, it was clear that the dark-haired teenager was drunk because she was stumbling and slurring her words, witnesses testified.
Some people at the party taunted her, chanted and cheered as a Steubenville High baseball player dared bystanders to urinate on her, one witness testified.
About two hours later, the girl left the party with several Big Red football players, including Mays and Richmond, witnesses said. They stayed only briefly at a second party before leaving for their third party of the night. Two witnesses testified that the girl needed help walking. One testified that she was carried out of the house by Mays and Richmond while she was “sleeping.”

Nodianos joked that the girl was so drunk she was “dead” and, at one point in the video, suggests that anyone who had sex with the girl in that condition was guilty of “necrophilia.” But it must be emphasized that Nodianos was neither a participant in nor a witness to the alleged assault. As cruel and tasteless as his jokes were, he was not guilty of a crime, nor did he have any first-hand knowledge of a crime.

What has happened in the past three weeks — since Anonymous “released what its members called a ‘partial dox,’” as Michelle Dean of the New Yorker reported — is that a witch-hunt mentality of collective guilt has developed around the case. Alexander Abad-Santos of the Atlantic:

The hackers . . . seem to believe that there are more people involved, that there are more victims, that the accused are getting special treatment because they are football players, and that there’s a bigger group of boys involved, which Anonymous has dubbed the “Rape Crew.”

These unsubstantiated claims about a “Rape Crew,” which allegedly involves many more people than the two Steubenville High School students who will face trial next month, are wildly irresponsible. As the Steubenville police chief told the New York Times in December:

“Everybody on those Web sites kept saying stuff that wasn’t true and saying, ‘Why wasn’t this person arrested? Why aren’t the police doing anything about it?’ ” he said. “Everybody wanted to incriminate more of the football players . . .”

John Ziegler appeared Monday on CNN Headline News and said:

“All of this information on social media that has come from this Anonymous Internet hacking group has been bogus, fraudulent, slanderous, libelous. They have committed at least nine felonies, according to one Ohio prosecutor. . . . They are frauds. Almost everything they have said has been false. They have ginned up an enormous amount of false media coverage and a false narrative has been created to destroy a town and there are many innocent victims here.”

Lee Stranahan continues reporting on the story:

It seems that we may be witnessing a typical case of media malpractice, in which a crew of irresponsible bloggers and “hacktivists” are ginning up false accusations without regard for truth, and without concern for the harm done to innocent citizens of Steubenville.

UPDATE: Lee Stranahan has posted excerpts of the testimony at the October hearing, to clarify when, where and by whom the girl was allegedly assaulted. Claims that the victim was “dragged [by the suspects] to three separate parties during the course of the night as their personal rape toy” (The Nation) or “gang raped and dragged from party to party” (Salon) are simply not substantiated by the testimony.

No one “dragged” her to the first party (she attended with girlfriends). She was not “dragged” from that party (she voluntarily left with Trent Mays and others), and there wasn’t really much of a “party” at the second home they visited, where they stayed only about 20 minutes, most of which time the girl was vomiting. The teenagers were asked to leave that home and the girl had to be carried out because she was passed out. According to testimony, it was only then — en route to the third party of the night, and at that party — that the girl was allegedly assaulted. And witnesses said the “gang rape” involved only the two 16-year-old boys who have been charged in the case.

There is a vast difference between (a) the specific crimes alleged in the testimony, and (b) the misleading impression created by certain media reports that the girl was the victim of repeated gang rapes.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Crime, Media Bias, Ohio

At Least One Chief Executive Is Doing The Correct Thing

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

So the guy who already knows he’s not going to meet his budget deadline is going to surround himself with children and infringe upon the 2^nd Amendment. Mataconis figures that flinging this much humus is likely to make something stick, in particular, the executive orders. One can hope the fiasco proves a bridge too far for the President. Is there some kind of psychological theory about repeatedly playing the Bad Guy as a means of weakening the opposing resolve?

For some green shoot of intellectual life peeking through the humus, Mike Pence in Indiana is enacting a regulatory moratorium. One is confident that the policy of “If DC can’t take credit, it won’t notice” will remain in effect. Also, Senator Rand Paul will be addressing CPAC 2013, in just two short months. Which, on the current course, will be a desperately needed therapy session. Register, and get your fedora down there.

Category: Uncategorized

Eighteen Severed Human Heads Stopped En Route to Chicago ‘Research Facility’

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 42 Comments

Somewhere in Illinois, a “research facility” is being operated by zombies, cannibals or, perhaps, a mad scientist from Transylvania:

The 18 human head specimens that arrived at O’Hare International Airport from Rome just before Christmas were on their way to a research facility in the Chicago suburbs — a facility that is “under investigation,” a source told the Chicago Sun-Times Tuesday morning.
Officials initially said a paperwork problem prevented the shipment from being delivered to its final destination, but the Sun-Times has learned that the hold-up is connected to an ongoing investigation at the suburban facility in question. The investigation is “absolutely not” connected to the shipment of the heads, the source said.
The heads were shipped from Rome as cargo on a Lufthansa Airlines flight, arriving at O’Hare about one week before Christmas.
“They were properly preserved and tagged as human specimens,” said Tony Brucci, chief investigator for the medical examiner’s office.
Brucci said U.S. Customs officials at O’Hare initially held up the shipment, when they found the paperwork to be “a little confusing.”
Brian Bell, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said earlier Tuesday that the specimens appear to be legitimate medical samples.

Why won’t the newspaper name the facility “under investigation”? Why do I suspect the “facility” is a castle with a laboratory in the cellar?

(Via Gawker; hat-tip to David Freddoso on Twitter.)

Category: Illinois, Science

Why Doesn’t President Obama Support ‘Citizens Against Senseless Violence’?

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 9 Comments

New York Times headline today:

Obama Poised to Back Comprehensive
Plan to Curb Gun Violence

If he’s against “gun violence,” why would his attorney general call the cops on a peaceful group promoting its own “comprehensive plan”?

Posing as “Citizens Against Senseless Violence,” [James] O’Keefe and company visited the homes of anti-gun journalists employed by The Journal News in New York and the Star-Ledger in New Jersey.
They also swung by Touré’s place and paid a visit to the ol’ Eric Holder homestead. Each household was asked to display a yard sign with the words “This Home is Proudly Gun Free.”
Any guesses how that turned out?

You don’t have to guess:

“FBI Police confronted our reporters within minutes of their knocking on the Attorney General’s home. Eric Holder is safe and sound under armed protection, unlike the nation’s children.”

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO PROJECT VERITAS

Category: Barack Obama, Constitution, Eric Holder, James O'Keefe

The Problem With ‘Sponsored Content’: Atlantic Unpublishes Scientology Article

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 24 Comments

How do you turn pixels into profits? This is an industry-wide issue for journalism in the digital New Media age, and the “sponsored content” approach — selling ads that look like articles — is supposed to be the wave of the future. Well . . .

The Atlantic apparently sold space to the ~~Church~~ Creepy Ripoff Brainwashing Cult of Scientology for an “advertorial” with this headline:

David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year

To say the very least, the article attracted unflattering attention:

The Atlantic — the one time publisher of Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton — is now publishing blatant Scientology propaganda. The “sponsored content,” which went up Monday around noon, features all sorts of breathless praise for Scientology and its alleged growth last year.
The post is basically one long tribute to David Miscavige, the “ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion” . . .

Given the high-toned image and upscale readership of the Atlantic, this invitation to public ridicule was an embarrassment to the staff:

MT @jeffreygoldberg: No time like the present to tout my friend Larry Wright’s great new investigation of Scientology: bit.ly/Um0Gwx

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) January 15, 2013

Twitchy collected the ROTFLMAO reaction from Twitter, and MediaGazer aggregated the firestorm of journalistic shame, which predictably ended with the de-publication of the non-article:

The Atlantic has U-turned on its controversial paid-for feature article from the Church of Scientology. The publication had sparked a debate on media ethics and business models after allowing the advertorial from the religious group to appear on its site but — as of 21:00, UTC-8 — the page now redirects to one with the following message: “We have temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”

Of course, this is just an occasion to laugh at the snobbish hypocrisy of the Atlantic, another elite-oriented neoliberal institution caught in the economic crunch that has affected so many other Legacy Media outposts. Paying for actual journalism in a post-literate age is an increasing challenge for every outfit not attached to an entertainment conglomerate that can afford to subsidize the written word as a “loss leader.”

For my own Shameless Capitalist self, I say shop our Amazon specials and remember the Five Most Important Words in the English Language:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!
A Feasible Alternative to Scientology Ads, So Far

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll offers a dish best served cold:

As I said, “Old Media Belatedly Discovers That Elections Have Consequences”‘ the moribund Obamaconomy is impacting the Atlantic as well.

The widespread belief among journalists that they can safely ignore market forces is crumbling under the weight of contradictory evidence. Jeff Bercovici of Forbes notes that it took less than 12 hours for the Atlantic to pull the ad, and issue an embarrassed statement:

We screwed up. It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism — but it has — to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way. It’s safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge — sheepishly — that we got ahead of ourselves. We are sorry, and we’re working very hard to put things right.

Maybe the Atlantic can sell out to the Qatari oil sheikhs . . .

Category: Journalism, Shoe Leather Fund

Transsexual Bullies Successfully Censor Feminist Writers Who Criticized Them

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 42 Comments

News from the competitive victimhood sweepstakes in Great Britain indicates that transsexuals have won the Most Oppressed Group prize, and are now able to demand complete deference. Kathy Shaidle and Donald Douglas have covered this bizarre controversy. To summarize:

Suzanne Moore, a columnist for the left-wing Guardian newspaper, published a feminist essay in the New Statesman magazine that included these sentences: “The cliché is that female anger is always turned inwards rather than outwards into despair. We are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape — that of a Brazilian transsexual.”
Moore’s quip drew the ire of what political correctness now requires us to describe as “the transgender community,” who engaged in angry online harassment of Moore, who Tweeted in response, “People can just fuck off really. Cut their dicks off and be more feminist than me. Good for them” — and then deactivated her Twitter account.
Fellow feminists rallied to Moore’s defense, including Julie Burchill, who wrote a column for the Observer in which she derided Moore’s antagonists as “a bunch of dicks in chicks’ clothing” and “bed-wetters in bad wigs.”
The aforesaid “transgender community” then formed a digital lynch mob against Burchill, attracting the political support of Member of Parliament (MP) Lynne Featherstone, who accused Burchill and the Observer of “inciting hatred.”
John Mulholland, editor of the Observer, folded like a cheap suit, pulling Burchill’s column off their Web site and issuing a craven apology “in light of the hurt and offence caused.”

All of this uproar began, remember, with a feminist’s jocular complaint about ridiculous pressures on women about their looks. And the moral of the story: Angry bullies always win!

From whom did the transgender community learn this lesson?

Why, yes, of course: From feminists themselves, who ruthlessly bullied their way to power by organizing hate-fests to denounce men whom they accused of sexism, discrimination, and/or harassment.

The boomerang of ironic payback . . .

Category: Feminism, Gays, Great Britain

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.15.13

Posted on | January 15, 2013 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
Despite French Airstrikes, Jihadis Continue Advance In Mali

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

Shortage of ground troops makes defense problematic

Obama Weighs Executive Action On Guns
Nineteen possibilities for executive orders

Thousands Rally For Second Day In Islamabad
“Last chance to save Pakistan”?

POLITICS
NY Senate Passes Package Of Tougher Gun Laws

Adams calls for Congress to follow NY example, ban already-illegal assault rifles

Assembly expected to vote early today

Obama, GOP Issue Challenges On Debt Limit

Newtown Parents, Residents Form “Sandy Hook Promise” Group

Swartz’ Suicide Fuels MIT Probe, Petition To Fire Prosecutor

Military Suicides Hit Record High In 2012

Sandy Relief Bill Faces Big Test Today In House

California’s Independent Legislative Analyst Gives Jerry Brown Good Marks On Budget

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Up On Completion Of US Pipeline: NYMEX $94.05, Brent $111.79
UPS Drops Bid For TNT Express
Japan’s Nikkei Index Hits 32-Month High, Other Asian Markets Mixed
S&P 500 Drops As Apple Loss Offsets Dell Gain; Crops Lead Commodities Higher
Treasuries Gain For A Second Day On Debt Ceiling Impasse
Radio Shack Calls Off Mobile Venture With Target
USDA To Begin Offering Farm Microloans
Has Apple’s Innovation Engine Stalled?
“Red October” Cyberattack Found By Russian Researchers
Study: Smartphones Outpacing Tablets In Data Consumption
Homeland Security Still Advises Disabling Java, Even After Patch
PRC Adds 51 Million Internet Users In 2012
Uber Taxi-Hailing App Lands In DC
Amazon Instant Video Now Available On The Wii
Diablo 3 Patch Preview, Dueling Detailed

SPORTS
LeBron James’ Missteps Cost The Heat As Jazz Prevails

Miami’s LeBron James

Utah gets hot, contains late Miami rally for 104-97 win

Armstrong Admits Doping On Oprah

Clippers Win Without Chris Paul, Beat Grizzlies 99-73

USC Fires Hoops Coach O’Neill

Visnovsky A No-Show At Islanders Camp, Won’t Leave Russia’s Continental League

Bulls Shut Down Hawks In 97-58 Rout

Rajon Rondo Paces Celtics In Win Over Bobcats

Black Caps Capitulate On “Tour From Hell”

Where Have You Gone, Chris Marrero?

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Brad Cooper: I’m Not Dating Jennifer Lawrence

Brad Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence

“I could literally be her father.”

Lindsay Lohan Fires Her Attorney

Jodie Foster: I’m Not Retiring, Speech Speaks For Itself

Britney Steps Out In “Love” Sweatshirt After Split

Matt Lauer Tells NBC Bosses To Release Ann Curry To CNN

Olympic Gymnast Shannon Miller Expecting Baby #2

Zack Snyder Shoots Down “Star Wars” Development Rumors

Maggie Smith Returning To “Downton Abbey” For Season 4

Brazilian Waxing Makes Crab Louse Endangered Species

FOREIGNERS
France Seeks Arab Backing For Mali Campaign
Nick Clegg Warns PM On EU Referendum
Indian LGen Parnaik: Pakistan Always In Denial, Always Fabricating Things
19 Killed In Cairo Rail Accident
Afghans Want Village Police Trainers Out
Gang Rape Victim’s Mother Calls For Death Penalty
UN Human Rights Chief Calls For Investigation Of Norks
Snow Forces 3400 To Spend The Night At Tokyo Airport
Olmert Accuses Netanyahu Of Wasting Billions On “Security Delirium”

BLOGS & STUFF
Gateway Pundit: Obama White House Readies 19 Executive Orders On Gun Control
Jake Sullum: How False Urgency Creates Stupid Gun Laws
Rick Moran: Are Republicans Crazy, Or Just Irresponsible?
Power Line: Obama Plays Hardball On Debt Ceiling, But Can’t Escape His Past
Weekly Standard Blog: The Sophist
Questions And Observations: The Debt Ceiling – Orwell Just Missed It By A Few Years
Althouse: Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes Speech Isn’t Nutty Or Incoherent
NRO Corner: Those New Gun-Control Polls
Ed Driscoll: You Kids Are So Damn Screwed
Patterico: WSJ On The Swartz Plea Bargain
Protein Wisdom: Mark Levin Reacts To Obama Presser – “We Have An Imperial President”
Weasel Zippers: Rep. Stockman Threatens Obama Impeachment Over Guns

Category: Live at Five

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The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.16.13

Steubenville ‘Rape Crew’? Non-Facts Smear the Innocent in an Ohio Town

At Least One Chief Executive Is Doing The Correct Thing

Eighteen Severed Human Heads Stopped En Route to Chicago ‘Research Facility’

Why Doesn’t President Obama Support ‘Citizens Against Senseless Violence’?

The Problem With ‘Sponsored Content’: Atlantic Unpublishes Scientology Article

Transsexual Bullies Successfully Censor Feminist Writers Who Criticized Them

LIVE AT FIVE: 01.15.13

THE FULL METAL JACKET REACH-AROUND AWARD

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!

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