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Globe Mocks Teenagers for
Being Abstinent
March
2001
The
Boston Globe ridiculed four teenagers last month for pledging
to be abstinent until marriage.
Although
the story was portrayed to be a balanced piece, a huge picture
on the front page of the Living section didn’t portray four happy,
smiling kids. It was an “artistic” portrayal of four somber looking
persons standing apart, looking away from the camera in all directions,
just like the Puritans looked three hundred years ago. The kids
were small figures in an all-black background.
Under
the picture, in large letters was the headline, “Like, a virgin.”
The
article was particularly surprising because apparently the Globe
doesn’t realize that the
vast majority of citizens in Massachusetts have indicated that
teenagers should not be encouraged to be sexually active as the
Globe is constantly doing.
Under
the main headline, the Globe put this mockery, “Teen abstinence
movement is winning new converts – until sex do them part.”
Apparently
the Globe got the teenagers to participate by telling them they
were going to do a balanced story about this new movement.
The
school kids were asked extremely personal questions by the Globe
reporter, Nathan Cobb, including how they feel about: oral sex,
genital touching, French kissing, and “everything short of intercourse.”
This
reporter wonders what Nathan would do if someone asked him personal
questions about his sex life. So where do people like him come
from? Where does the Globe find people like that?
For
Nathan’s information, Massachusetts News had a telephone survey
done of 600 Massachusetts residents a year ago by WirthlinWorldwide
in which one of the questions was whether teenagers should be
encouraged to be sexually active. To our surprise, 92% of the
respondents were emphatic in their “no” answer. Some 47% of those
respondents said they were liberals. Of that group, 91% said that
teenagers should not be encouraged.
Of
course the Globe chose not to report that news so we couldn’t expect
Nathan to understand that most readers would not think his article
was cute. |
