by CYNDY SLOVAK-BARTON
We reported a story last week that was tough to write, tough to read, tough to print.
It was about the sexual assault – the rape – of two Kyle area women.
As we discussed in an editorial last week, where to draw the line about what to report, and how, is always dicey, for a newspaper that takes its obligations seriously, especially in a close community.
Few things bring that home the way this kind of story does. Our reporting drew many comments on the website. Many felt the coverage was important; many others, probably a majority, have weighed in against the story, feeling it was too detailed – some arguing that it should not be run at all because it’s not good for the image of Kyle.
We didn’t run the story lightly. The story is an important one to be told, even in our community – especially in our community, where it seems such things shouldn’t happen.
Too often in our society we blame the messenger, blame the girls, but don’t face the hard reality that this happens even in good communities, even in our own town.
Rape survivors know that few people truly understand the crime. Until you have been in the situation, until you have faced that precipice, it’s hard to imagine what it is like.
Right now, rape too often goes unreported, and the real violence of sexual assault is usually kept quiet. When it does come to light, too often the victims get blamed – rather than the perpetrators. In this case, there’s now been more comment about the propriety of talking squarely about what happened than about the man who allegedly did it.
The details in our story last week were horrible. Yes, that is the reality of rape. But the story needs to be told. It must be told. Residents may learn life-saving caution from these details.
Most of the comments on our website were born of good intentions, and many of them raise good points, points without clear-cut right or wrong answers about what should be printed.
But women here need to know they are not immune to the crimes of Austin or San Antonio. And as we struggle in our own fallible way to report the news and make this a better community, with confidence in our readers’ ability to find the best path to truth so long as we provide solid, important information, we usually choose to err on the side of disclosure.
We still think it was an important story. Could we be wrong about how we presented it? Sure. We’ve been wrong before.
Was it done callously or with an eye toward titillating readers?
I can assure you it was not. How can I be so sure? Because I made the call about printing it, and, like the two women who suffered and survived this despicable crime, I am a rape survivor.
