--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray27" <steve.sundur@...> wrote: > > Commenting as I go along > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@> > wrote: > > > > Thank you for this balanced view, Steve. It helped me > > clarify my own thoughts and feelings about it. Isn't it > > usually the news director who chooses the angle of a > > news story? I thought Crowley's intro of the reporter > > was objective. > > Well, that makes two of us. > > > It was the reporter Harlow who was initially sympathetic > > to the 2 boys. > > Of course. That would be the opinion of just about anybody > who didn't have an agenda they wanted to push.
I find it positively bizarre that *anyone* could revile either Crowley or Harlow for how they reported this. Recognizing the negative consequences of a punishment for the perpetrators of a crime does NOT mean one does not think the punishment was well deserved or that the crime wasn't horrifying. I sure didn't detect even a trace of "boys will be boys" in that report. These kids did something incredibly stupid and cruel and insensitive, and they're going to regret it for the rest of their lives. Is it "sympathy" to point that out? What would count as "decent" behavior in this circumstance? Schadenfreude? Should Crowley and Harlow have *gloated* over the sentence? Should they have refrained from discussing the *fact* that the scene in the courtroom was highly emotional? Nobody said the emotion was all in favor of the boys. Common sense tells you it would have been split between those who were relieved the boys were convicted and would serve time, and those who had been hoping they'd get off. I'm not a fan of Crowley regardless of the fact that she's a TMer, BTW. But I can't find any fault in her reporting in this instance. One should also bear in mind that this breaking news report was hardly the only discussion of this crime and trial on CNN. I don't watch CNN, but I'd be astonished if folks who were distinctly unsympathetic to the boys hadn't had their say as well.
