The New York Times is under attack from bloggers who assert that a March 8 article about the alleged gang-rape of an 11-year-old girl Texas laid blame on the prepubescent victim, says Yahoo News. The social justice website Change.org started an online petition to “Tell the New York Times to issue a published apology for their coverage of this incident and publish an editorial from a victim’s rights expert on how victim blaming in the media contributes to the prevalance of sexual assault.”
The Times has not apologized but did publish a letter to the editor from a woman who was “shocked to see the article report that town residents said the 11-year-old girl ‘dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s.’ The article continued, ‘She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.’ ” The writer asked, “How is this relevant except to subtly blame the victim?” The Times told Yahoo News that, “Neighbors’ comments about the girl, which we reported in the story, seemed to reflect concern about what they saw as a lack of supervision that may have left her at risk.”