Exposing Boy Scouts Sex Abuse Turned Into Battle of Press Freedom Against Powerful Interests The film “Church and the Fourth Estate” tells the story of how the Boy Scouts tried to cover up a massive scandal of child sexual abuse.

[CynicalScouter]

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/21/boy-scouts-abuse-scandal-film/
 

Quote

 

This much, though, is clear: Their sagas were largely preventable. The Boy Scouts made it almost certain that thousands of people would continue to be abused, its actions made sure the pain would continue. Thousands of people have suffered in silence or were made to somehow believe that it was their fault. Now, month by month, an organization that has held itself up as a moral and ethical leader is being destroyed by an awful truth.

“Everyone wants to know if the Boy Scouts are going to survive,” Kosnoff, the lawyer, told me. “But the real question is, should they survive?”

 

 

[skeptic]

This, in my opinion, is one of the worst examples of what once was called the "yellow press".  It uses only hypersensitive statements and leaves out most of the real efforts clear back to the 20's to stop these people.  Remember that was before our super-sensitive society was open to massive misleading or partially documented public sensationalism.  And this article leaves out , as noted much of the complete story, instead reaching for the Mormon Church as an added target so as to make it more highly attention getting.  I wonder if we should turn the clock back to the Tea Pot scandals, or maybe bring back the "McMartin case" and reintroduce it under current standards we seem now to accept?  

 

[yknot]

1 hour ago, skeptic said:

This, in my opinion, is one of the worst examples of what once was called the "yellow press".  It uses only hypersensitive statements and leaves out most of the real efforts clear back to the 20's to stop these people.  Remember that was before our super-sensitive society was open to massive misleading or partially documented public sensationalism.  And this article leaves out , as noted much of the complete story, instead reaching for the Mormon Church as an added target so as to make it more highly attention getting.  I wonder if we should turn the clock back to the Tea Pot scandals, or maybe bring back the "McMartin case" and reintroduce it under current standards we seem now to accept?  

 

It's actually not yellow journalism. It might be one sided, but it's factual. 

It could have been worse because it didn't go into many other related aspects of this case that continued well into the 2000s. Whatever you think of what's happening to BSA, you have to be impressed about what that young kid endured and how hard he worked to make sure it stopped happening to other kids at great cost to himself. 

[skeptic]

Sorry, but the article is misleading, and injects a great deal of suggestion of "possible" things that are drawn from the book On My Honor that was published decades ago now.  Also, it tries to suggest that this was a widely occurring thing throughout the program, when numerous investigations have show it was not, and also overlooks admission of error and poor judgement by BSA to start with and efforts to counsel victims that have been discovered.  We also have the huge change in the YP training since this all actually occurred, none of which is noted.  We come back to the same issue, over and over again.  BSA admits making errors and has worked to put barriers in that were not there.  They "have" paid money out and also counseled and have an open offer to continue to do so.  Compared to most other youth groups, they are an open book and have a far lower occurrence of documented cases, and many of those are connected to perpetrators that are also traced to other groups.  Our society tends to ignore the realities of human nature and somehow expect BSA and others to somehow absolutely stop very devious and warped perpetrators.  That is not possible, thus the need to assure YP barriers are always in place and that as accurate investigation as possible is made when these things are reported in order to assure as much as possible that the event(s) are accurate and not attempts to embarass or hurt someone that they do not like or that disciplined them in some way.  It is the total hyper sensationalism that is the real problem, and just like reality TV, for some reason, much of the public eats it up, even to the levels we are seeing in the national political scene.  Just my opinion, but I have never forgotten a time when I was subbing in a middle school class with an odd table configuration that put some students away from easy access.  A girl, I think 8th grader, asked a question on a math assignment and I had to lean across the girl next to her to point at something for clarity.  My sleeve touched the head of the girl nearest the aisle, and she started saying that I was touching her.  Fortunately, the girl being helped told her to stop it and shut up.  But I have never forgotten that, obviously.  It made me paranoid to an extent and very defensive, assuring I was "never" alone with students and telling them to stay out of the classrooms at lunch or something, and also immediately standing outside in full view if they came in anyway.  It is really sad that we have reached this point in society where normal human activity is made to be suspect by some.  Younger kids are even more effected in that their natural innate desire for attention and tendency to want to hug adults is no discouraged.  Have you ever seen the hurt eyes of a second grader when kept at a distance by an adult in charge when they try to engage?  And still, things DO happen, but in most cases the barriers work, and that needs to be made known and the outliers need to be punished.  Talking to the wall I am sure, at least for a few that have decided that BSA, the Catholics, and now most likely the LDS Church, among others, are all predators and should be flagellated in the public square, even at the expense of beneficial programs that are overwhelmingly safer than they have ever been.

 

[johnsch322]

I just watched this.  It is gripping and heart breaking but speaks to what so many of us have endured.  If you do watch it I will tell you that it will reopen feelings we all would like to forget.

How Boy Scouts Child Abuse Cover-Up Was Exposed (theintercept.com)

[PeterHopkins]

On 10/29/2021 at 4:19 PM, johnsch322 said:

How Boy Scouts Child Abuse Cover-Up Was Exposed (theintercept.com)

I'm speechless after watching this video.