Media Coverage

Media Coverage
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Registrant
Hi

Ste mentioned in another thread that he'd been in touch with papers in the UK asking them to do a one-off column giving information about csa -- and met with a "no".

I was wondering about the possibility of contacting a high-profile, likely-to-be-sympathetic columnist, and asking them to do a piece on the stories of male survivors. Not really to make any particular point, just to get our experiences out there.

I guess what starting me thinking about it was how powerful the narratives are that people post on this discussion board. They show so clearly the impact of abuse on men's lives -- the different ways it affects us, the common elements in different men's experience, and the ways we try to deal with it. And what Vitaliy said was so amazing and obviously had such a big effect on other people here.

Of course, that sort of article would normally end with information about resources.

For the last few years I haven't read the papers, so I don't really have anyone specific in mind to contact. (I guess I was sort of thinking about Polly Toynbee; but it is only a thought.) And I don't know if any UK papers have carried this sort of item recently.

Anyway, I just thought I'd float the idea, to see what people thought about it. Would anyone want to tell their story in this way? Anonymous stories could be really powerful.

Tom
 
The guardian has done a fair bit, including an article on me. Also the Sun has done a fair bit.

I've lost the link, but someone will have it....
 
Tom

Try Ian Hepburn, Anthony France and Jon Scott at The Sun they can be contacted by way of here:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006270645,00.html

Feel free to mention my name as all of these were connected with the conviction and confrontation with one of my abusers ... Jonathan King (Operation Arundel)

Regards

Kirk
"Lets grab this bull by the horns and swing it about a bit"
 
The sensationalist papers aka the sun and news of the screws would never get a column from me.
Sorry, but I dont need sensationalism in my life, just the truth, in a truthful paper.

I asked the Guardian and Independent, by emailing the educational people, I wanted to do a column focused on teachers and doctors of awareness.

I think it is a bit of a very hot potato right now with all that is going on, and the Government fractured and flawed, nobody will touch it,

ste
 
I really don't want to contact the Sun, or a similar paper, as I imagine they'd want something that had a very direct point to it. Confronting/exposing/criticising people (whether perpetrators, police, judges, probation service, government or whoever) may well often be positive and justified, but isn't what I had in mind.

The idea -- whether sensible or stupid -- was just to try to find a columnist (who could submit to a paper with a weekend supplement) who would let the stories of male survivors speak for themselves. Nothing with an obvious "point" or "news-value"; and nothing directly educative. Just allowing experiences to speak for themselves.

Tom
 
Tom - I have contacted several columnists over the last few months, when they have written articles that refer to childhood abuse.

I always receive a thanks for the e-mail, but the next week they have always moved to another topic.

General letters pages also receive many letters.

I believe it's a case of keep plugging away until someone actually takes notice!


Ste - I've never read the Sun for years (and never bought it). We all have our preferred media publications, but I believe that if the issue of child abuse is highlighted to the general public then that is a good thing - I'm not too concerned who publishes first, because they all tend to follow each other. The News of the World is also constantly campaigning for Sarah's Law - this may be one positive in amongst many negatives regarding that paper, but at least they are consistant on this issue.

Best wishes ...Rik
 
Tom - if they printed my story, it would have to include criticisms of the judiciary / government and others, otherwise it would not be my story!

One current example: Even though I achieved a conviction against the relevant paedophile as recently as March 17th this year, I feel that I am the one still undergoing a sentence! Do you know why?

Because the summing up in court was atrocious (not to mention the actual sentence).

The defence barrister (female & on her first day representing the perv, as his original barrister dropped out of the case), stated that the Perv was an Elderly Gentleman answering for indiscretions from long ago. Neither the judge or the prosecution barrister contested this description... he was really a grooming multiple abusing paedophile - gentleman had nothing to do with it ever. And don't get me started on mitigating circumstances!

I used to have a social life, but do you know what. If I attempt to go for a few pints with friends now, I can manage about 2/3 before I get this echo in my head....An Elderly Gentleman,,,An Elderly Gentleman...it goes round and round. IN some respects, I am worse off than before I took the ******* to court. I would very much want to be critical of the system if I could get anyone in the media to publish an article on my case. A wishy washy version of events would do nobody any good!

Same as the other post that I made (and you referred to earlier) - the support that is available to men that were abused as boys is practically useless (doesn't exist). Again, if I was being published in the media, I would need to be critical!

If I was published in the media regarding sentencing, I would need to be critical because the current system is so hypocritical.

The sentence applied in my case, was low because the crimes were historical, and the sentence that could be applied was the one in effect at the time the crime was committed.

I am waiting for the day that someone who is still alive now, is convicted of a murder that took place before hanging was abolished. Using the criteria applied in my case, this murderer should still be hung, even though hanging is abolished...it's the sentence that applied at the time of the crime!

I understand your perspective, that you just want the general public to know we are out here! I don't - I want them to at least half understand the damage that those ******** do, and for a national outcry to develop demanding tougher, realistic prison sentences for the offenders. If anyone thinks that I seek vengeance, rather than justice, I am also happy to accept that!

I had a right to a childhood - it is the most precious thing anyone ever has! To take that away is one of the lowest things a so called human being can do to another!

I can't even apologise if I appear to be ranting, because I know the system is wrong!

Best wishes....Rik

*PS - nothing personal!
 
Hi Rik.

I didn't take it as personal.

I can see you've got a lot to be pissed off about. And that's part of your experience. You couldn't "edit it out" and still tell the truth. I don't mean to suggest you could or should.

I don't think I disagree with you at all; but maybe we're not quite understanding each other.

I had in mind that an article wouldn't need to be "framed" by some single big point. It could be, and there are lots of good points to make; but it wouldn't have to be.

Someone could write an article to say: look at how inadequate the sentencing of people who abuse children is, and this is an example ....

Or someone could just give space to let people tell their stories (and your story would include being screwed over by the judicial system).

I get the impression people aren't getting (or maybe they're just not liking) where I'm coming from. I suppose I think that it's the details of people's experience that are really telling. That's what I've found really powerful about reading the posts on here.

Pretty much everyone knows that boys and men get sexually abused, and I guess they know that it harms them. And they'll have right or wrong opinions about why it happens, and what should happen to the people who do it, etc.

But what they are very unlikely to think about is what it is like to live as a survivor of abuse. I'm only just beginning to think about this myself, even though I've been unconsciously doing it for 25 years. And I thought it might be worth trying to get the narratives out there.

That would, I think, help people understand the damage the perpetrators do. It might help parents believe and understand their children. People might understand their partners better. Or people might see the signs of abuse that they would otherwise have missed.

Someone or other said that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Laws matter, and they need to be changed and implemented properly. But speaking to people's hearts, building understanding, is also important.

What I'm suggesting isn't inconsistent with trying to get better and more consistent sentencing, which is definitely very important.

Take care, Tom.
 
Rik,

those two papers seek to sensationalise a subject to sell more drivel.
I am not interested in sensationism, as it makes the whole issue a political hot potato.

Far better to educate the public with awareness without causing knee jerk reactions.
If I were a parent reading that garbage, I would be in total fear of letting my kids out.

In reality, the kids know who messes with kids, but they are kept quiet.
What is even more disturbing is the amount of what goes on in kids own families.

The only real educators are the ones who have been there, not some goody goody lobby of professionals.

I have a cool wristband with "silent no more" written on it, nobody in a week has stopped and asked what it means, if they do, I will tell them,

ste
 
As the News of the world is classed as tabloid gutter press we have to ask ourselve if it was not for the sarah payne campaign John Reid would not be looking at it again.

I totally agree that the tabloids do sensationalize and are some times way off the mark but you have to realise that they do have the biggest readership and it appears that politician DO take note of the public feeling generated by The Sun, Mirror, Mail etc.

Thinking that The Guardian (which is my own personal read) is an educational paper (as such I agree) take a look at this weeks Observer and Carol Sarlers article.

https://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1800234,00.html

She is very lucky to have had a supportive, loving family, some of us did not have that luxury. She has written manty times on CSA and i find fault with nearly every article that she has written especially when she wrote one basically supporting Jonathan king which was so inaccurate is was unbelievable. I quote "they were just rough trade who returned time and time again to Kings house"..... well Ms. sarler this "rough rade" young teen did not return again and again .... even the broadsheets do get it wrong.

Kirk
"Lets grab this bull by the horns and swing it about a bit"
 
Ste - Kirk makes exactly the point that I made in a previous post. The Guardian may class itself as more highbrow, but as I said before, it is written and edited by the type of people that make excuses for perpetrators of crime.

There is no such thing as a high class truly moralistic newspaper in our country. They all have sales figures to make and do it any way they can.

Getting the information out into the public arena is my main concern, and I'm not bothered who does that!

I read a range of media publications and certainly do not believe everything I read in any of them.

No matter who the reader is, or what the paper is, I think everyone except paedophiles can see that child abuse is wrong!

Kirk - even if Jonathan King was using 'rough trade', he still deserved to be prosecuted, and the 'trade' should be given support so that they don't need to do that sort of thing to live. Ms Sarler is totally irresponsible in her comments.

Most of that 'rough trade' has been let down by society in the first place, and that is how they end up 'servicing pervy old blokes'.

By the way - I read the Mail, which is allegedly written for right wing bigots (according to the Labour media), something I can assure you I am not!

Best wishes ....Rik
 
Kirk, that woman in the Guardian should be tarred and feathered.
How much did King pay her to write that!

They then rejected my offer to write an educational thread, knowing that teachers and other professionals may learn something.

I put a good prospectus to them, hope thats the right word.
Told them that I dont want paying, and they could edit it if they wished.

They pretty much ignored it, so maybe the Scottish papers are the way to go, then they all follow the sprat in wanting to be in on it.

You are doing a good job, see it through, make sure they listen, to common sense for once.

Rik, sorry but I have nothing to do with those papers, nothing at all, dont care who reads them.
The reason is clear, sensationalism is never based on fact.

Maybe one day someone will bring out a broadsheet for abuse survivors paid through a trust fund,
just a thought,

ste
 
Kirk / Ste - isn't it time someone like Richard Branson was encouraged to write a 'Real Newspaper'?????

No sensationalism / no political bias / just what the general public think?

Maybe I should try and e-mail him!?

Google here I come!

Best wishes ...Rik
 
It would be good if somebody could come up with a publication based on public awareness.
It would also be good if parents could have more knowledge of where to turn to for help.

When I worked in a public focused advisory position, I was astounded at just how gullible the public are in life.

If we take the current hysteria hyped up by the tabloids, then it is not hard to see that the public are beying for blood.

If you read this article in the Guardian it shows more clearly the facts in what these papers are really doing to whip up hysteria in the Country.

My concern is, in the longer term, the effect on the reader of the accumulation of news, all of it selected and presented in a certain way, to serve a paper's distorted vision of Britain. A Martian reading the Daily Mail would imagine a bleak country, teeming with dangerous paedophiles, murderers and rapists roaming loose and waiting to strike again, a youth generation dedicated to drink, noise and impoliteness to their elders, crime ever rising, an impotent police and ineffective courts. It isn't so, but say it often enough and people start to believe it. That does greater damage to society than a tabloid's misguided campaign.
Click to expand...
It does not give us any support, but it distorts real fact and vision.
It is reported that 95% of child abuse goes unreported often for decades.

Cases of historic abuse will make perps uneasy of getting hauled in.
More of those cases need to surface, because the worst thing they want is to be caught.

Believe me,

ste
 
Ms sarler of The Observer is at it again but this time in The Daily Mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=391901&in_page_id=1879&in_a_source=

I would love to know what her thoughts are during the wee small hours when she is on her own.

To more or less say that you can remobve it from your mind is to me a load of BO**OCKS.

Just by writing the article she does she must find it triggering.

Inetreting to note that the parents did not report it to the police, in my eyes they have facilitated and abuser to escape conviction and worse ..... possibly to go on and offend even more

Kirk
"Lest grab this bull by the horns and swing it about a bit"
 
I could not read it all, but I do not like the media frenzy that ensues.

I too, wonder about what her mind trolls through in the small hours, but sadly I can only identify with my own thoughts on that.

Maybe, when a mother would ring my office wondering what they can do for their daughter or son, I should have told them to contact her, and she would make them feel a load better. NOT.

With a knife at her throat she must have been fantasising about doctors and nurses.
A few weeks of therapy and she is good as new.
How long for!

I think she is reading too many crime comics,

ste

Interestingly, she did not report it, the cops found it by chance.
Single mothers have an inner protective thing for their children, and they always think that the child will be taken into care.

That is a whole new area that needs to be addressed.
 
"they were just rough trade who returned time and time again to Kings house"
Click to expand...
Just wonderful. Hmmmmm, let me see. How did those boys get to be "rough trade" in the first place? No fathers were drunk or violent at home of course. None were absent altogether. No mothers were out working or drinking either. The boys were all loved and appreciated and kept safe. They were never mistreated or beaten or exposed to drugs. They all had good schools, great teachers and lots of interesting activities to engage them as they grew. They all just decided to give it all up and and they CHOSE to end in the street. They were never cold or hungry or confused or starved for attention. They were just "rough trade" from the start and thought, Ok, what can I do today. Yeah! Think I'll go get fucked by Jonathan King.

Silly me. I never knew it was so simple.

Larry
 
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