On CNN, Candy Crowley’s and Poppy Harlow’s (Poppy Harlow?) on-air commentary about the convicted rapists was indeed bizarre and they’re being called out for it pretty much by everyone. Now there’s a petition calling for an apology. Not a bad idea, but even more importantly I hope people realize this is a window into what the death of right and wrong looks like, and reveals how craven some in the liberal media really are.

Via Mediaite.

On Sunday, the Steubenville rape trial concluded with the judge finding two high school football players — Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16 — guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl. The case itself has received a widespread coverage, but after the verdict was handed down, CNN became part of the story due to reporting “sympathetic” with the accused. A petition, with more than 30,000 signatures, is asking for a public apology from the network.

The petition criticizes the network for “sympathizing” with the rapists rather than the victim.

[Their] discussion was interspersed with footage of Mays and Richmond sobbing in court, which Harlow deemed “hard to watch.” After Callan’s assessment, Crowley jumped back in to note that the girl’s life will never be the same again.

It didn’t take long to see the backlash, especially on Twitter, much of which was directed at Harlow for her “shameful,” “poor rapists” mentality. (Storify has a sampling of the reaction here.) Jezebel and Gawker also weighed in with a critical take, with the former offering up a piece on what CNN should have said.

Over at the Huffington Post, Kia Marakechi asserted that “it’s telling that this tone continued over multiple segments, despite a cadre of tweets and blog posts deriding the network’s earlier coverage.” With a hefty number of signatures already, it won’t be surprising to the petition gain many more.

Here’s the segment at issue:

As of this writing the petition is now at 67,316 signatures. You can check it out here.

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18 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Alain41 says:

    I thought the same thing when I heard her name, Poppy Harlow, huh? what? Wiki says, Katherine Julia (Poppy) Harlow from Minneapolis attended the private Blake school & Columbia U.

    Katherine or Kathy or Julia or KJ are all good, so I’m assuming that Poppy is so ingrained from childhood that it is a significant part of her identity. Otherwise, why not Jeanne Harlow or Mary Lynn Monroe.

    imho, both first name nickname and sensitivity to the perps represents too well how TV news people are not hired based on/do not have the pedigree of old-time daily reporters.

  2. TigerAim says:

    Ah well, pretty soon we’ll have to eliminate sex crime registries because of the stigma it places on the criminals! Ugh!

    • ashleymatt says:

      TigerAim, that is no joke. I have seen more than one story in left wing newspapers like the Orlando Weekly (one of those free papers you pick up at a coffee house) about how registered sex offenders “have trouble finding housing” because their registry does not allow them to live within a certain radius of schools, parks, or other child-associated areas. Like all criminals, sex offenders are victims in the eyes of the left. Injustice is their method of revenge on humanity.

  3. Shifra says:

    Marvelous coverage of the story, Poppy and Candy.

    And now, you both need to go to Tahrir Square, where you can continue to tell the stories of the poor Egyptian rapists of Lara Logan.

    Then, off to India, where you can continue your amazing reportage. I hear there are a bunch of rapists there, too. And their stories *must* be told.

  4. naga5 says:

    agree with all y’all.
    this is the war on women. the subtle sympathy for men/young men/society who are caught using women like the proverbial dirty dish rag.
    rick

  5. midget says:

    I know this will bug some people for bringing a theological argument to this case, but if one perseveres to read the encyclical ” Humanae Vitae” issued in 1968 by Pope Paul 6th, one would see in it, a prophetic warning of how women would be treated if contraception was embraced by the world. Not only leading to abortion and an increase in divorce but more importantly how men would eventually turn against women and treat them as “proverbial dirty dish rags”.

    • midget says:

      I meant to add a reminder of how women were once treated by men in a scene from “A Man Called Peter” with Richard Todd, a true story of an amazing Protestant preacher. Its where he talks about the difference between men and women not because they were not equal, but because women were far superior to men because they werent like men.And when women began to act like men in dress and smoking,swearing and promiscuity, they actually lowered themselves and thereby made men disrespect them.Why else would all the old love songs and poetry be written by men to those women who remained on that pedastal?

  6. 1ntbtn says:

    Sounds like Candy and Poppy would rather have seen this poor abused girl stoned than have these two disgusting trollops pay the price for their actions.

  7. TX Soldier254 says:

    Nah, save your “apologizes” into a box of half eating chocolate bars, I want this Unethical Gargantuan Fired!

    Did I come off a tad bit strong?

    Thank You

  8. Patricia says:

    Signatures now at 236,664. CNN commentary on petition: CRICKETS. If you missed Shifra’s post on the Onion story – priceless!==> This Two-Year-Old Onion Story Perfectly Predicted CNN’s Shocking Steubenville Rape Trial Coverage http://gawker.com/5991175/this-two+year+old-onion-story-perfectly-predicted-cnns-shocking-steubenv

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