The condemnation of those who sexually assaulted CBS News correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt's Tahrir Square has been widespread. But not universal. Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft blamed the assault on Logan's "liberal belief system." Liberal journalist Nir Rosen lost an NYU fellowship after tweeting that Logan was a "war monger." And conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel suggested that Logan should have expected such an ugly incident given that she was hanging around Muslims. What were these people thinking?
Extremists value cause above people: Rosen's "bizarre Twitter rants" suggest Logan isn't worthy of his sympathy because she's a "war monger," says James Joyner in Outside the Beltway. Hoft and Schlussel blame Logan's "liberal belief system" and her mingling with Muslim "savages." What unites them is the "tendency of the extremists on both sides to immediately jump on any tragedy as an opportunity to score points for their pet political cause."
"The 'Lara Logan deserved it' meme"
They're just jealous: Rosen also took a pot shot at Anderson Cooper, and the attention white "celebrities" like he and Logan were getting for covering the Egypt uprising, says Philip Weiss in Mondoweiss. It sounds like he's just "jealous of Logan," and he's probably not alone among hotshot young journalists. "It's good that he apologized and quickly," but it will take more than that for his "rehabilitation."
"I think Nir Rosen is jealous of Logan and Cooper's success"
Some people always blame the victim: The "wildly tone-deaf" responses to Logan's assault started even before Rosen's "offensive" tweets and the "ever-heinous" Schlussel's "So sad, too bad, Lara" screed, says Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon. It took "all of minutes" after the news broke for LA Weekly's Simone Wilson to post a "stunningly offensive" post essentially blaming Logan's blonde hair and "Hollywood good looks."
"What not to say about Lara Logan"
People don't know how to handle sexual assault: The media demonstrated lesser failings, too, says Jen Phillips in Mother Jones. Especially in their "confusing" and incorrect conflation of "sexual assault" and "rape." A Wall Street Journal source says Logan was not in fact raped, but you'd never know that from reading the headlines. That points to a broader "lack of training, awareness, and accountability" about sexual assault and female reporters.
"Lara Logan: Reporting rape vs. sexual assault"
