{"id":180,"date":"2013-07-20T19:34:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T23:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/?p=180"},"modified":"2017-10-31T20:16:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T00:16:50","slug":"the-daily-free-press-controversy-regarding-its-coverage-of-sexual-assault-and-other-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/2013\/07\/20\/the-daily-free-press-controversy-regarding-its-coverage-of-sexual-assault-and-other-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Free Press controversy regarding its coverage of sexual assault and other crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago, this<\/a>\u00a0article was published on xoJane<\/a>. \u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

A Boston University student relates her account of how the student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, reported the incident of her sexual assault using \u201ca\u00a0pun involving a popular rap song that describes the sexual appeal of a woman\u2019s body\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>in the crime logs section.<\/p>\n

Shockingly, this was not the first time that the DFP had trivialized a crime with a catchy pun or phrase. \u00a0The author of the article gives several other examples of this practice. \u00a0She goes on to say that when she brought it up to one of the student managing editors, she was told \u201cthat\u2019s just what they\u2019re like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author\u2019s words:<\/p>\n

I felt less-than-human. The day in my life that I was sexually assaulted marked a before-and-after divider in how I felt about myself as a human being and as a woman, and this thoughtless, demeaning description of it by somebody who is a fellow student and supposed \u201cjournalist\u201d minimized it to a fucking RAP PUN. This was over a year and a half ago, and I am still livid.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The DFP issued \u00a0an\u00a0apology<\/a>, declaring that they would put an end to this practice of satirizing crimes by updating the past headlines as well as only using serious ones in the future. \u00a0They also \u201cplan to begin mandatory sensitivity training for new editors at the start of each semester.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the issue doesn\u2019t seem solved to us or the author of the xoJane post, who stated that \u201cthe\u00a0apology did not come off as very sincere and I remain unhappy with them and their conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly will this sensitivity training consist of? \u00a0As aptly put by one of the comments on the DFP\u2019s apology: \u201cI\u2019m not sure how sensitivity training will help anyone who finds humor in rape, hate crimes & violence.\u201d \u00a0And it seems that the real issue is with the current editors who were the ones who actually wrote the offensive tag-lines.<\/p>\n

As a BU student, I want my school to be the type of community where things like this wouldn\u2019t fly in the first place. \u00a0Why have issues as serious as sexual assault been insensitively trivialized by the DFP on multiple occasions? \u00a0Let alone, once?<\/p>\n

The DFP is a student newspaper. \u00a0It should be the voice of the student body \u2013 it shouldn\u2019t alienate students with such blatantly offensive and distasteful content.<\/p>\n

We at Hoochie will endeavor to hold the DFP to its promise to \u201cimprove its coverage of student affairs, its reputation and credibility and its sensitivity to crimes that continue to plague our campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please do not hesitate to contact us at BUHoochieWoman@gmail.com<\/strong> if you wish to be a part of our effort to improve the BU community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago, this\u00a0article was published on xoJane. \u00a0 A Boston University student relates her account of how the student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, reported the incident of her sexual assault using \u201ca\u00a0pun involving a popular rap song that describes the sexual appeal of a woman\u2019s body\u201d\u00a0in the crime logs section. Shockingly, this was … Continue reading The Daily Free Press controversy regarding its coverage of sexual assault and other crimes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7073,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,97],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/hoochie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}