During a trip to Pennsylvania this weekend, I got to read my hometown papers' follow-ups on the electric-shock sex story that rocked York, Pa., last week.
Included in the coverage were some letters to the editor, like this one. Apparently, Deborah Rishell of Jacobus and other readers thought the York Daily Record and York Dispatch went over-the-top with their coverage of this story.
"Don't you have a responsibility to report news with accuracy and yet with some restraint as to what, I believe, is 'too much information?' " Rishell wrote.
She thought the use of "sex play" in the headline and placing the story on the front page was sensational and harmful to children. Rishell demanded an apology from the paper to the victim's family.
I've read the coverage, and I don't think the papers have anything to apologize about. It wasn't tabloid journalism. The reporters just reported the facts police gave them, which happened to involve kinky sex and a homicide investigation.
And spare me the crying, please, about your 13-year-old son who was scarred by the headline. Trust me, he's seen and heard worse in school and online. Use it as an opportunity to teach him a lesson about safe sex and knowing when to say no.
That's just my opinion. What do you think?
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