As Turner Report readers know, former KOAM morning anchor Sarah Pierik has taken a job at KWCH 12 in Wichita. Apparently, this is a station that doesn't stop at anything to land the big story.
On the station's website today is a one-of-a-kind story. "A Garden City teacher is arrested for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old teacher."
This raises an important question:
What kind of a school district would hire a 16-year-old teacher?
Actually, that line was used on the station's home page, which had a link to the complete story. A 40-year-old female teacher was arrested for having sex with a 16-year-old boy.
Another thing I noticed about the homepage teaser was the misuse, unfortunately common, of the word "allegedly."
The overuse of that word is a big problem with TV stations and newspapers. We have all heard reporters say the prosecuting attorney has charged a suspect with allegedly killing someone. That is absolutely wrong. No prosecutor has ever charged anyone with allegedly doing anything. The charge is the allegation.
As far as the Wichita story is concerned, can you imagine the police questioning the teacher and asking, "Did you allegedly have sex with that teenage boy?" Reporters are taught to sprinkle the word allegedly all over stories in order to give themselves some semblance of legal protection. All they end up doing is confusing the reader.
Or maybe that's just the result of having the kind of educational system that would hire 16-year-old teachers.
5 comments:
Well it is the age of consent in Kansas, so I don't see the problem.
What is the deal with all the female teachers having sex with students in the past 10 years? If it were a male teacher I think there would be more of a public outcry. JMHO
Why didn't they have more teachers like this when I was sixteen?
"Alledegely" is a legal CYA term so that the media can't be sued for running a news story about a murder. After all, under the US Constitution, individuals accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty.
Green about Pierek's promotion?
I will agree about why allegedly is used, but it is often used inaccurately. As I noted, if someone is charged, that is the allegation. No one is charged with allegedly committing a murder, they are charged with committing a murder.
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