An Assault is Not a Fondle

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't publish my letter, but that was no surprise. It was highly critical of the newspaper's editorial judgment in characterizing the assault of a female jogger as "fondling" -- not just once, but three times in the first three paragraphs of the story.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/regional-news-briefs-1j7n99q-180080571.html

Here is what I wrote:

  

 “To handle tenderly, lovingly, or lingeringly, caress, to show affection or desire by caressing.” Those are the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions for the word “fondle,” which the Journal Sentinel used three times in the first three paragraphs in a story today (Nov. 20) with the headline “Other bike trail sex assaults reported.” I can assure Journal Sentinel editorial staff that the woman who was attacked while jogging last week on the Oak Leaf Trail did not feel like the attacker was being loving or showing affection when he assaulted her. For any newspaper, much less a major daily – and the only one for Milwaukee County residents, to use such outrageous and retrograde language regarding a crime committed against a woman is a disgraceful reflection on your news organization in particular and on journalism in general. Perhaps your reporters, copy editors and editors need a class in what you might consider the passé concept of consciousness-raising.

I don’t know if, even though the letters editor chose not to publish my letter, it at least got somebody’s attention or if (hopefully) the paper received other complaints, too, but the terms used to describe the assault in a follow-up story when a man was arrested was “groping” and “fourth-degree sexual assault.”