CNN on Sunday aggressively covered the breaking news of the verdict in the Steubenville rape case. Star football players Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl. Propelled by social media and mainstream media, the Steubenville case has long held a high profile. 
 
 Defense attorney Walter Madison, right, holds his client, 16-year-old Ma’lik Richmond, second from right, while defense attorney Adam Nemann, left, sits with his client Trent Mays, foreground, 17, as the judge reads the decision. (Keith Srakocic/Associated Press) 
 
 The scrutiny that comes with its profile descended on CNN. In repeated segments yesterday, CNN featured reports from reporter Poppy Harlow, who was in Ohio for the verdict. Here’s the transcript of some of the coverage at the 11 a.m. hour: 
 
 ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. 
 
 CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: I’m Candy Crowley in Washington. RELIABLE SOURCES is just ahead. 
 
 But, first, a breaking story we’re following. 
 
 Two star football players in Steubenville, Ohio, have been found guilty of raping a West Virginia teenager. The story has attracted national attention. The judge just ruled a few minutes ago. Listen in. 
 
 (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 
 
 JUDGE THOMAS LIPPS, HAMILTON COUNTY FAMILY COURT: In this case, you know, regarding the charges of rape, both defendants Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays are committed to the Department of Youth Services for a minimum of one year and a maximum period until you’re 21. 
 
 (END VIDEO CLIP) 
 
 CROWLEY: Again, this case was played out in juvenile court, that is why there was a judge, no jury. He decided on the verdict, as well as, you heard there, talking about the sentence. 
 
 We want to go now to CNN’s Poppy Harlow. She is in Steubenville, and has been covering this trial. 
 
 I cannot imagine having just watched this on the feed coming in. How emotional that must have been sitting in the courtroom. 
 
 POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I’ve never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional — incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart. 
 
 One of — one of the young men, Ma’lik Richmond, when that sentence came down, he collapsed. He collapsed in the arms of his attorney, Walter Madison. He said to me, “My life is over. No one is going to want me now.” 
 
 Very serious crime here. Both found guilty of raping this 16- year-old girl at a series of parties back in August, alcohol-fueled parties. Alcohol is a huge part in this. 
 
 […] 
 
 I want to bring in Paul Callan, our CNN legal contributor. 
 
 You know, Paul, a 16-year-old now just sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, still sound like 16 year olds. The other one, 17. A 16-year-old victim. 
 
 The thing is, when you listen to it and you realize that they could stay until they’re 21, they are going to get credit for time served. What’s the lasting effect, though, on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially? 
 
 PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, Candy, we’ve seen here a courtroom drenched in tears and tragedy and, you know, Poppy’s description, I think, you know, sums it all up. But across America scenes like this happen all the time. 
 
 I know as a prosecutor and defense attorney, when that verdict is handed down, usually it’s just the family and families of the defendants and the victims, there’s always that moment of just lives are destroyed. And lives have already been destroyed by the crime. And we got a chance to see that. 
 
 But in terms of what happens now, yes, the most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law and, by the way, the laws in most other states now require such a designation in the face of such a serious crime. 
 
 That will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Employers, when looking up their background, will see they’re registered sex offender. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet where these things are posted. Neighbors will know they’re a registered sex offender. 
 
 It’s really something that will have a lasting impact. Much more of a lasting impact than going to a juvenile facility for one or two years. 
 
 CROWLEY: Paul, thanks. I want to bring Poppy back in — because, Poppy, there’s — you know, the 16-year-old victim, her life, never the same, again. And I understand you have been talking to some of the families involved. 
 
 HARLOW: Her life never the same again. Absolutely, Candy. The last thing she wanted to do was sit on that stand and testify. She didn’t want to bring these charges. She said it was up to her parents. 
 
 But I want to tell our viewers about a statement that her mother just made, just made in the court after the sentencing. Her mother just said that she has pity on the two young boys that did this. She said human compassion is not taught by teachers or coaches. It’s a God-given gift, saying that you displayed a lack of compassion, a lack of moral code, saying that you were your own accuser throughout this for posting about this all over social media. And she said she takes pity on them. ||||| As expected, the Internet lit up after the judge announced the guilty verdict in the Steubenville rape trial. As expected, some reactions were just awful. Unexpectedly, one of them came from CNN. 
 
 Candy Crowley probably didn't mean to steal the spotlight on Sunday afternoon, when she reported on the breaking news from the Steubenville courtroom where Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond had just been found guilty. After the verdict came in, the CNN anchor turned to correspondent Poppy Harlow, who expressed some strange mixture of emotions. "Incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart," said Harlow. Crowley turned to legal expert Paul Callan, who sounded almost apologetic when explaining how the rape conviction will mean that the Steubenville rapists will now be registered sex offenders and how that "will haunt them for the rest of their lives." None of these things said were untrue. But the tone was certainly a little off. 
 
 The segment, in general, didn't do CNN any favors. While they're not necessarily rooting for the rapists, even the slightest bit of sympathy didn't go over well, especially once it was lumped together with all of the outrageously offensive reactions of true Steubenville rapist sympathizers. Sarcastic example tweet: "The Steubenville story is all too familiar. Be responsible for your actions ladies before your drunken decisions ruin innocent lives." Sincere example tweet: "So you got drunk at a party and two people take advantage of you,that's not rape you're just a loose drunk slut." Of course, cases like the Steubenville rape trial can be polarizing, and we've long known how distorted some notions of justice can be. 
 
 The blogosphere went to town on CNN. Gawker's Mallory Ortberg really didn't appreciate Crowley and company waxing sympathetic about the damage done to the rapists' "promising futures." She wrote, "Their dreams and hopes were not crushed by an impersonal, inexorable legal system; Mays and Richardson raped a girl and have been sentenced accordingly." Ortberg added, "Reporting like this presents viewers with anonymous female victims and dynamic, sympathetic, complicated male figures." That's a strong point, especially since we didn't really hear from the victim until nearly the end of the trial. 
 
 That said, the media's actually been grieving the ends of these rapists' young lives for a few days now. It's just a little more infuriating now that they're officially guilty. Just before the trial started, for instance, Good Morning America published a sprawling preview under the headline, "The Steubenville Rape Case: What You Haven't Heard." What follows is a retelling of the whole saga with plenty of attention paid to the "honors student" Mays and wrong-side-of-the-tracks Richmond. The piece ends on a sympathetic note, almost bemoaning the fact that the two teens "face incarceration in a detention center until their 21st birthdays and the almost-certain demise of their dreams of playing football." Feeling sorry for the boys was a little bit more acceptable before they were convicted, but still, it hardly feels like objective reporting. 
 
 If all this upsets you, don't use up all your rage now. The Steubenville case is hardly over. Next, the state of Ohio will convene a grand jury to investigate further charges, and the media circus will get an encore, if not an entirely new act. All any decent person can do is hope for a little bit more balance. "As I said already, any rape is a tragedy," Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine said after the verdict on Sunday. "But, it is even more of a tragedy when that victim is continually re-victimized in the social media." Let's hope the mainstream media doesn't do the same. 
 
 Update, Monday: Even as questions grow about the grand jury hearing, one thing is clear: CNN is not alone — MSNBC and Fox let the victim's name get on air, too. 
 
 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
 
 Adam Clark Estes ||||| CNN's unconscionable coverage of the Steubenville Rape Case verdict is pissing everyone off. Newscaster Candy Crowley, general correspondent Poppy Harlow, and legal expert Paul Callan all did their very best to focus solely on the guilty verdict's repercussions on the two rapists. There's next to no coverage of the girl who was brutally raped; instead, they talk almost exclusively of the rapists— the two teenagers who had such bright futures, and now their lives are completely ruined from this one little indiscretion. Isn't it a shame how they suffer? 
 
 Let's not forget that these boys committed truly despicable acts and to all appearances showed no remorse or regret until they were faced with real-world consequences. But still, wasn't it so sad when they broke down crying upon learning they'll spend a few years in juvie? It was so sad that CNN forgot to talk about the sixteen-year-old girl whose life will be spent dealing with the ramifications of rape. After all, she left the house with a vagina; she KNEW the consequences. 
 
 Here's what actually happened on CNN: 
 
 When Crowley said she couldn't imagine how emotional it was in the courtroom, Harlow — who was there and had been inside the courtroom — responds: 
 
 I've never experienced anything like it, Candy. It was incredibly emotional, incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures — star football players, very good students — literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart...when that sentence came down, [Ma'lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney...He said to him, 'My life is over. No one is going to want me now.' Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August. Alcohol fueled parties; alcohol is a huge part of this. 
 
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 Then, after the verdict is read, we watch Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond speak. 
 
 Mays says "I would truly like to apologize to [the girl], her family, my family, and community. Those pictures shouldn't have been sent around, let alone taken." 
 
 "I had no intentions of doing anything like that, and I'm sorry I put you guys through it. I'm sorry," said Richmond. He was held and comforted; his back was pat. 
 
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 On top of all that, Harlow makes a big deal out of Ma'lik Richmond's lawyer — this guy — telling her that today was the first day Ma'lik's dad told him he loved him — doesn't your heart just bleed for him? Because without a father's love, a boy just has to rape. 
 
 CNN legal contributor Paul Callan then enters the chat. 
 
 Crowley inquires: 
 
 You know, Paul, a sixteen-year-old now just sobbing in court, regardless of what big football players they are, the other one just seventeen, a sixteen year old victim, they still sound like sixteen-year-olds... The thing is, what's the lasting effect, though, on two young men being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially? 
 
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 Callan responds: 
 
 Well, you know, Candy, we've seen here a courtroom drenched in tears and tragedy.... The most severe thing with these young men is being labeled as registered sex offenders. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law...That will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Employers, when looking up their background, will see that they're registered sex offenders. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet, where these things are posted, neighbors will know that they are registered sex offenders. 
 
 Jesus — this stops just short of becoming a full piece on athletes overcoming rape. Such a tragic story for the two teenagers who raped a girl in multiple locations and took pictures and video of it. So sad for them. 
 
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 Here's what should've happened on CNN: 
 
 When Crowley said she couldn't imagine how emotional it was in the courtroom, Harlow — who was there and had been inside the courtroom — responds: 
 
 Incredibly difficult to watch what happened; these two young rapists that had such promising futures — star football players, very good students, rapists — literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart because they brutally raped a girl...when that sentence came down, rapist [Ma'lik] collapsed in the arms of his attorney...the rapist said to him, 'My life is over. No one is going to want me now.' Very serious crime here, both found guilty of raping the sixteen-year-old girl at a series of parties back in August. Alcohol fueled parties; alcohol is a huge part of this, and I'm saying this right now to explain away rape, which is unacceptable. 
 
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 Then, after the verdict is read, we watch Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond speak. 
 
 Mays says "I would truly like to apologize to [the girl], her family, my family, and community. Those pictures shouldn't have been sent around, let alone taken." Also, this. 
 
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 "I had no intentions of doing anything like that, and I'm sorry I put you guys through it. I'm sorry," said Richmond. 
 
 CNN legal contributor Paul Callan then enters the chat. 
 
 Crowley inquires: 
 
 Sixteen-year-old rapists just sobbing in court, regardless of what big football player rapists they are, they still sound like sixteen-year-old rapists...what's the lasting effect, though, on two young rapists being found guilty in juvenile court of rape, essentially ? 
 
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 Callahan responds: 
 
 Well, you know, Candy, we've seen here a courtroom drenched in tears of a rapist and the tragedy of rape... The most severe thing with these rapists is being labeled as registered sex offenders, and how fucking sad is it that? One gets just two years in a juvenile detention facility, and the other gets JUST ONE YEAR. Isn't that insane, Candy; doesn't it just blow your damn mind? And who knows what kind of rehabilitation they'll actually get; probably next to none. They will most likely exit even more fucked up than they entered, always thinking the worst thing they did was get caught. Perhaps they'll learn to not live-tweet and record their rapes, because jail is probably even worse than juvie — and they'll probably be tried as adults next time. They won't be taught not to rape; the adults around them continue to make damn sure of that. Their lives should be made difficult by this, but they should also get support and education. In reality, they will only get the first thing, and in all the wrong ways. It's a real shitshow, and heartbreaking to say the least. That label is now placed on them by Ohio law...That will haunt them for the rest of their lives, kind of. Employers, when looking up their background, will see that they're rapists. When they move into a new neighborhood and somebody goes on the Internet, where these things are posted, neighbors will know that they are rapists. That is the worst thing that will happen to them — can you believe how good they have it? Now, let's spend the rest of this hour long program talking about what the real victim — you know, the sixteen-year-old girl who was violently raped by her classmates — will deal with on the difficult, never-ending road that is the life of a rape survivor. Because the rapists might have a little trouble finding an apartment to rent in the future, but she'll be dealing with the trauma of rape for the rest of her life. 
 
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 That's a little better. 
 
 Let's hope we can all stay on message because this isn't over yet. Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine said yesterday that the state will convene a grand jury to investigate further charges in the case. 
 
 "This has been particularly hard for the victim and her family," DeWine said. "As I said already, any rape is a tragedy. But, it is even more of a tragedy when that victim is continually re-victimized in the social media." 
 
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 He's right about the social media thing — there's already plenty of shitty things flying around — and it's true that mainstream media can do better, too. 
 
 Update: Much like Fox News, CNN failed to redact/censor the victim's name from footage of Trent Mays' courtroom apology. We've since removed the video. 
 
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 Previously: Steubenville Football Players Found Guilty of Rape 
 
 [Raw Story] ||||| Journalists took to Twitter Sunday to criticize the media’s coverage of the two teenage boys who were found guilty in the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case. 
 
 Lauren Wolfe, Xeni Jardin and others called out CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Paul Callan for sympathizing with the men and highlighting that the woman who was raped was “allegedly drunk.” On Monday, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC aired the woman’s name. Think Progress called the move “an act of serious journalistic negligence.” 
 
 “What I’m so furious about, after the act perpetrated on this young woman, is our media’s take. Mainstream media, of course, reflects society — so in this case, they reflect rape culture. But shouldn’t we expect more from the media? Aren’t there such things as news judgment and context and analysis?” said Wolfe, director of the Women’s Media Center’s Women Under Siege project. 
 
 “Why is nearly no outlet … bothering to ask what’s wrong with masculinity in this country, with the arrogance of those defending a football team rather than a young woman who was violated? How could the media possibly be putting the emphasis on [the fact that] the girl drank? Did the boys not drink?” 
 
 Wolfe also criticized Nightline for saying the Steubenville debacle is a “cautionary tale for teenagers living in today’s digital world.” 
 
 “As if the problem was what the boys did online, not that they raped a 16-year-old girl and then bragged about it publicly,” Wolfe said. 
 
 CNN’s Harlow talked about how the charge against the two young men “literally watched as their life fell apart.” She didn’t talk, though, about the traumatic effects that rape can have on young women. 
 
 Several times in the past, news organizations have left out important context or used language that suggests the rape victim was at fault. The New York Times was criticized for doing this in 2011 while covering a gang rape in Cleveland, Texas. 
 
 When journalists first began covering the Steubenville case earlier this year, they revealed little about the young woman. Because she hadn’t spoken out and her identity was being protected, coverage focused mostly on the men. In January, for instance, Matt Lauer interviewed the attorney and ex-guardians of Ma’lik Richmond, one of the teenagers who has been found guilty. 
 
 Richmond’s ex-guardians portrayed him in a positive light and said they supported him. Childhood photos of Richmond flashed across the screen as they talked. At the time, it was hard not to wonder, “How is this affecting the young woman? Is there anyone to advocate for her?” 
 
 There was also a lot of talk in the media about the teenage boys’ roles as football players, aka “glorified athlete suspects.” In January, BuzzFeed’s Katie Heaney wrote that an accuser’s athletic achievements can serve as “a legitimate alibi absolving them of wrongdoing.” 
 
 Salon’s Irin Carmon touched upon this issue when describing CNN’s coverage (which Gawker also criticized). 
 
 “Yes, networks are limited in how much footage they can show when it comes to the victim and her family, whereas they can show the boys’ emotional breakdowns, but Harlow was narrating events and not limited to footage. Yes, these boys are young. But the seriousness of their crimes was utterly glossed over in favor of a sideshow about whether a father told his son he loved him,” she said via email. “We rarely see such compassion evinced for young offenders when the crime isn’t rape, or when they lack the social status of football players.” 
 
 Wolfe and Carmon both pointed to a journalist who did a good job covering Sunday’s Steubenville news: Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel. Wolfe praised his column for “going beyond the obvious” and “smashing victim-blaming.” 
 
 Wetzel wrote about the complexities of town where “a culture of extreme arrogance collapse[d] in two tearful rape convictions.” 
 
 Put in the spotlight was the local football team, which, critics said, allowed players to brazenly operate seemingly above the law for years. Social-media accounts, self-made videos, photos and classless text messages exposed an entire world that seemed like a Hollywood script of a high school team out of control. 
 
 He also offered context about the seriousness of rape: 
 
 Rape, experts say, is a crime of power and control more than sex. Underlying all of that is arrogance, and in Steubenville it was taken to the extreme. 
 
 There’s no doubt that covering rape is difficult; it takes time and resources to report on the nuances of the crime, offer context about how common rape is, and explore both sides of the story. But that’s exactly the kind of reporting we need more of. 
 
 [&amp;amp;lt;a href="//storify.com/mallarytenore/reactions-to-media-coverage-of-steubenville-rape-c" target="_blank"&amp;amp;gt;View the story "Reactions to media coverage of Steubenville rape case" on Storify&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;] ||||| “My life is over. No one is going to want me now.” That is what Ma’lik Richmond, who is sixteen and was found delinquent (the juvenile court equivalent of guilty) in the rape of a sixteen-year-old girl from West Virginia, said at the end of his trial in Steubenville, Ohio. He also cried. Richmond will be held in juvenile detention for at least a year, and perhaps until he is twenty-one; his codefendant, Trent Mays, who is seventeen, will serve an extra year on a charge of distributing child pornography, for taking and sending around a picture of the victim, naked. The reactions to Richmond’s breakdown, and to the conviction itself, have been divided. There has been a loud yelp not only on Twitter and around Steubenville but also, fairly outrageously, in CNN’s first report, about how tragic this is for those teen-age boys. Poppy Harlow’s exchange with Candy Crowley focused almost entirely on how “two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart.” Harlow mentioned that the charges were serious and that the victim was young, but talked about the prosecution as a sort of injustice against her, too: “The last thing she wanted to do was sit on that stand and testify. She didn’t want to bring these charges. She said it was up to her parents.” There was no note suggesting that the judge’s verdict might have vindicated that decision, or that maybe sixteen-year-old girls in places like Steubenville would be a little safer now. 
 
 Worse, one could take away the impression that a nice girl doesn’t press charges, rather than that nice boys do not, as was the case in Steubenville, take a girl who has drunk too much and bring her from party to party, assaulting her in a car on the way, until they end up in a basement where they strip and assault her again, and try to make her perform oral sex—except that she is not conscious enough—and then take photographs of her naked body. They do not text “yep” when asked if they had sex with her, or “I shoulda raped now that everybody thinks I did,” but “she wasn’t awake enough”—as Mays did, raising the question of whether he didn’t think it could be rape if she was passed out—and then text the girl to complain about being taken off the football team and tell her “I’ll just never do anything nice for you again.” Nice—but nice people at a party watching all this can’t let it happen, let alone send around pictures and videos with brutal captions afterward, and then leave their friend to look through the images as she frantically wonders what happened to her in the hours she can’t remember. And nice policemen and nice football coaches don’t act like they hope it will just go away until bloggers and social media (and the hackers of Anonymous) push them to act. And all of these people cannot then carry on as though the one who caused the trouble was the sixteen-year-old girl who was raped—and who, according to testimony in the trial, has been dropped by her friends, ostracized, and put under every sort of pressure—and not the rapists. 
 
 There was a good deal of anger in response to the CNN report, which, again, it fully deserved. A Gawker piece by Mallory Ortberg, for example, made the sensible point that “Their dreams and hopes were not crushed by an impersonal, inexorable legal system; Mays and Richmond raped a girl and have been sentenced accordingly.” 
 
 But one can go further. Where is the challenge to the idea that their lives really are “over”? There is something deeply harmful in all of the adults reinforcing the assumption that the lives of teen-age boys are destroyed when a girl says what they have done. There is also something incomplete about just replying that they deserved the consequences (as much as they do). For one thing, it can mean asking a sixteen-year-old to be the one to judge the weight of her own trauma. It isn’t trivializing the seriousness of the sentence to say that teen-agers always think, when one door is closed, that everything is over, and that it’s the job of grownups to explain that it isn’t. A different life is not a worthless one. (Absent parents, not incidentally, are a theme of this story.) 
 
 There are more important and complicated questions beyond that, both practical and ethical. Telling those teen-agers that there shouldn’t have been consequences might mean another victim, in another town, years in the future. It also affects what sort of men the boys become, and one has to think that Richmond and Mays, too, have an interest in that. Does it destroy a teen-ager’s life to take him off the path of being an adult rapist? Perhaps it is too abstractly (even annoyingly) philosophical to ask what the “better” life is—one in which you have a remote shot at being in the NFL, or one in which you might be a person who treats others decently? Still, the question is worth asking. 
 
 It’s also the premise of a juvenile-justice system. Mays and Richmond were tried by a judge who said, in giving the verdict, “I’m aware this is the first time they have been in trouble with the law. But these are serious offenses. If they were convicted in an adult court of these charges, they would be spending many years in prison.” He recommended that they be put in a youth facility. In CNN’s report, Crowley talked to an “expert” who said that the teen-agers would be “haunted” by being on the sexual-offenders registry for the rest of their lives. That actually depends on a hearing later and how juvenile authorities think they’ve done by the time they’re twenty-one. Those who are agonizing about wasted lives might spend their time on the inadequacy and, in many states, effective abandonment of the juvenile-justice system, and how kids who have done even less than these two are, too often, thrown in with adult offenders and written off. (As Rachel Aviv wrote in The New Yorker last year, “Each year, more than two hundred thousand offenders younger than eighteen are tried as adults.”) But first, they should think about a sixteen-year-old girl walking through a town in West Virginia, wondering if she has any friends in the world. 
 
 Photograph by Keith Srakocic/AP. ||||| CNN's coverage of the verdict in the Steubenville rape case appeared to be curiously weighted on Sunday, focusing on the effect the guilty verdict would have on the lives of the now-convicted rapists and their families, rather than that of the victim and her family. 
 
 Steubenville High School football players Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, were accused of raping a severely intoxicated 16-year-old West Virginia girl who also attends the Ohio school. Thousands of text messages introduced in the case presented a picture of teens swapping graphic stories about the assault. 
 
 In a Sunday afternoon segment, anchor Fredricka Whitfield followed the straight news of the guilty verdict (which she described as rape occurring "after a night of heavy partying") by showing the rapists' parents' weeping in court. Footage of Richmond, his mother and father offering emotional appeals to the victim's family dominated the segment. 
 
 Whitfield threw the story to reporter Poppy Harlow, but not before reiterating that Mays and Richmond's "family members tried their hardest to plead for some forgiveness from the victim's family, as well as from the judge." 
 
 To her credit, Harlow appeared to try and correct the segment's tone: "That's true Fredricka," she said of the tears of the convicted rapist's families, "but this is an incredibly serious crime, it's the crime of rape." 
 
 And yet, the effects of the rape on the victim seemed to be an afterthought: "It was incredibly emotional, it was difficult for anyone in there to watch those boys break down," Harlow said. "[It was] also difficult, of course, for the victim's family." 
 
 "Also difficult, of course?" Over the course of the segment, CNN twice aired Richmond's father's appeal for forgiveness in full and also included footage from an interview in which Harlow asks Richmond if it's true that he told Ma'like he loved him for the first time after the verdict came down. The father emotionally explained that he blames himself for the incident because he wasn't "around" enough. "I want to stress that parents need to get involved more in their kids' lives," Nathaniel Richmond said. 
 
 CNN did air the entirety of the victim's mother's statement on the verdict, but that came after the tears of the Richmond, his mother and father. 
 
 The Sunday afternoon segment was hardly the first time CNN had fumbled its coverage of the case. Earlier on Sunday, anchor Candy Crowley expressed her deepest sympathies for Mays and Richmond. 
 
 Harlow set up the scene, which she said was "incredibly difficult" to watch, thusly: "These two young men -- who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students -- literally watched as they believed their life fell apart." 
 
 "What's the lasting effect though on two young men being found guilty juvenile court of rape essentially?" Crowley asked CNN's legal analyst Paul Callan. 
 
 The slant of the day's coverage was revealing in two capacities. First, CNN appears to have bet on the emotions of those it could show on camera -- for obvious reasons, the victim's identity has been protected, and the victim's family was not shown weeping in court. Networks know that people crying make for great TV. Secondly, it's telling that this tone continued over multiple segments, despite a cadre of tweets and blog posts deriding the network's earlier coverage. 
 
 Later on Sunday, Whitfield wrapped the first segment of her coverage on the case by describing it as "a heart-breaking case to watch, no matter how you look at it." That CNN can find so many ways to look at a rape trial is perhaps to blame for their embarrassing and damaging coverage. 
 
 Correction: This post incorrectly attributed the quote describing the courtroom scene as "incredibly difficult" to Candy Crowley and has since been corrected to note that the quote comes from Poppy Harlow. 
 
 WATCH: 
 
 
 
 Others noticing CNN's faulty coverage: 
 
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 Flavia Dzodan CNN a month ago: OMG SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR THOSE POOR INDIAN WOMEN! CNN today:poor defendants #Steubenville! what abt their future! 
 
 Sharon So far @cnn has made no comments on Candy @crowleyCNN s thoughts on the #Steubenville rapists? Didn't fire her yet? Good w/rape? 
 
 Flavia Dzodan CNN seems to want us to believe that rape culture is "other people's problems" and not pervasive and toxic in the West as well 
 
 Matt Bors CNN's reaction to the Steubenville rape verdict is shameful http://t.co/V6lHy0kmff 
 
 Danice Andrus RT @Anniefromkansas: HOW ABOUT RAPE VICTIM???CNN grieves that guilty verdict ruined ‘promising’ lives of Steubenville rapists | http://t.co/p4NOWXwIN2 
 
 Rhonda Hansome Not the #rape but guilty verdict ruined ‘promising’ lives of #SteubenvilleRapists? #RealMenDoNotRape http://t.co/uA8p1aWMq6 
 
 Txue Yang RT @HalloweenBlogs: .@jmcaninch68 They were doing the same sympathetic nonsense on #AlexWitt on @msnbc - RAPE is RAPE @cnn #CNNFail #MSNBCFail #EpicFail 
 
 Muffin's Mom CNN promoting rape culture! #SCUM CNN grieves that guilty verdict ruined ‘promising’ lives of Steubenville rapists | http://t.co/koAGibcz7t 
 
 LondonFringe RT @tonyajonemiller: Hey @CNN, glad you care so much about the rapists. What about what happens to the rape VICTIM? http://t.co/iq6jC5xqiT (via @MattBors) 
 
 maggie RT @usedtobgop: @jungmuse HEY @cnn men who rape AREN'T pillars of society! WAKE THE HELL UP! NO wonder your ratings stink! http://t.co/Cr8x5P7EEy … 
 
 Warren 2016 RT @Angie_Coiro: I've always respected @crowleyCNN so much, and hope she will address this publicly: http://t.co/JQcIAOyNB5 … It's just so wrong. 
 
 Rodd RT @ScottySSWB: Dear @CNN when reporting a story about rape you probably shouldnt try to make us feel bad for the rapists lives being ruined, #Steubenville 
 
 Scott Dear @CNN when reporting a story about rape you probably shouldnt try to make us feel bad for the rapists lives being ruined, #Steubenville 
 
 The Notorious B.F.G. @CNN Please rethink your approach on Steubenville. The football players are not the victims so don't portray them as such. 
 
 Luis Heras CNN grieves that guilty verdict ruined ‘promising’ lives of Steubenville rapists | The Raw Story http://t.co/uThdDSC6lM 
 
 Follow Kia Makarechi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Kia_Mak ||||| The recent rape conviction of two teenagers, one of whom also distributed a photo and sent cruel text messages about their victim, has captured the “bystander effect” in graphic and nauseating detail. 
 
 The bystander effect is the psychological term coined after Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered outside her New York apartment building in 1964. As the story unfolded, neighbors ignored her screams during three attacks over a 30-minute period. 
 
 Kathleen Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary In 2010. View Archive 
 
 This rendition of events was later disputed. Apparently, the configuration of apartments was such that no one could see the entire series of events. Despite different accounts, at least some of the people in her building were aware that a woman was being attacked and none came to her rescue. 
 
 The horror of the crime was magnified by this apparent lack of interest, leading to studies that produced the bystander effect theory. Researchers discovered that the more people who witness something, the less likely any are to respond. When several witnesses are present, people tend to assume that someone else will jump in — or make the call — or they think that, since no one else is taking action, there really isn’t a problem. 
 
 In the recent rape case, where two Ohio high school football players were convicted of assaulting a 16-year-old girl from West Virginia while she was too drunk to give consent (one of her attackers described her in a text message as “like a dead body”), not only were there witnesses but dozens of other teens were also privy to what happened through postings to social media. In no time, a 16-year-old’s humiliation went viral. 
 
 1 of 8 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Steubenville football players found guilty of rape View Photos On Sunday, two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville, Ohio, were determined to be delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of guilty — of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a coverup to protect the community’s athletes. Caption On Sunday, two members of the high school football team that is the pride of Steubenville, Ohio, were determined to be delinquent — the juvenile equivalent of guilty — of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in a case that bitterly divided the Rust Belt city and led to accusations of a coverup to protect the community’s athletes. March 17, 2013 Family and extended family members of 16-year-old Ma’lik Richmond console each other as they hear that he and co-defendant Trent Mays, 17, were found delinquent on rape and other charges after their trial in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio. Mays and Richmond were accused of raping a 16-year-old West Virginia girl in August 2012. Keith Srakocic/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Once again, the horror of what happened to a victim has been magnified by the apparent lack of empathy among her peers. The girl has been physically violated, while the psychological effects of her public exposure are unimaginable and likely will be enduring. 
 
 Much has been said about how social media helped solve this crime. Through texts, videos, photographs and posts on Twitter and Facebook, police were able to piece together a timeline and document what happened. This history is posited as one of the marvels of social media. 
 
 What hasn’t been addressed is the factor of social media in the events themselves. If the bystander effect prevented people in 1964 from coming to the aid of Kitty Genovese, what might we expect from this and future generations, technologically equipped with devices that, by definition, place one in the role of dispassionate observer? 
 
 With a cellphone in every pocket, it has become second nature for most people to snap a picture or tap the video button at the slightest provocation — a baby’s giggle, a fallen tree or, just possibly, a drunk girl stripped naked by boys who don’t think twice. Over time, might the marginalizing effect of bystander detachment impede any impulse to empathize ? 
 
 Endowed with miraculous gadgetry and fingertip technology that allow reflex to triumph over reason, millions of young people today have the power to parlay information without the commensurate responsibility that comes with age, experience and, inevitably, pain. 
 
 The ease of cellphone photography and videography promotes a certain removal from circumstances, driving all into the bystander mode that leads to a massive shirking of responsibility and perhaps even a lack of cognitive awareness of one’s own part in the moment. 
 
 One of the most famous photographs of all time, by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams, showed Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shooting Viet Cong operative Nguyen Van Lem in the head. Adams grieved for what he called his own killing of Loan, who was known throughout the world for that photo and little else. 
 
 Adams caught an essential moment with that Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, but not, according to him, a whole truth. For the rest of his life, Adams regretted his role in Loan’s subsequent demonization. 
 
 Though both Adams and Loan are dead, the image endures forever. The same can be said of the poor West Virginia girl whose image was captured and distributed by one of her abusers. The difference is that Adams understood the power of the photograph, which he once called “the most powerful weapon in the world.” Never mind the power of an instant publishing mechanism in every urchin’s hands. 
 
 In the 21st century, it isn’t possible to keep such weapons out of the hands of children. At the very least, the young should be taught to treat the artillery of social media with the same fear and loathing we demand for all deadly weapons. Otherwise, we risk becoming bystanders to our own dystopia. 
 
 Read more from Kathleen Parker’s archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook. ||||| Two high school football players from Steubenville, Ohio, are to be tried as juveniles for kidnapping and rape. 
 
 Activists from the hacker groups KnightSec and Anonymous protested the case Saturday at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio. (Photo: Michael D. McElwain, Steubenville Herald-Star, via AP) 
 
 A college student who joked on YouTube about the alleged kidnapping and gang rape of an unconscious 16-year-old girl is no longer enrolled at Ohio State University, the school confirmed Monday. 
 
 The video, which features 18-year-old Michael Nodianos, became a lightning rod in the case involving two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio, about 150 miles east of Columbus, where the university is located. 
 
 The two 16-year-olds are facing trial next month as juveniles. Attorneys may seek a change of venue because of the publicity and reluctance of witnesses to testify. 
 
 "Michael Nodianos is no longer a student at The Ohio State University," the school said Monday on its Twitter feed. Steubenville police said he is not facing criminal charges related to the alleged Aug. 11 assault. 
 
 In a news release Friday, the university said that the high school students had "no affiliation with Ohio State" and that "the student in question was in attendance at Ohio State only through Dec. 12," the end of the fall term. 
 
 The 12-minute video was originally posted in August, deleted later, then reposted last week by hackers affiliated with Anonymous. 
 
 A lawyer for Nodianos said he would release a statement Monday, saying his client's family "has been hammered ever since" the video resurfaced, the Steubenville Herald-Star reported. 
 
 The story gained national attention after The New York Times reported in mid-December about how the case has divided the Ohio River town of about 18,000. A blog called Local Leaks alleges the girl was drugged and assaulted by a "rape crew" that took her to at least one party. 
 
 On Saturday, activists with Anonymous and KnightSec protested at the Jefferson County Courthouse, accusing local authorities of not prosecuting sexual assaults. For their part, the city and police launched a website, Steubenville Facts, "to disseminate the most accurate information" about the case. 
 
 City Manager Cathy Davison said a major aim of the site is to debunk the notion that the Steubenville High School football program controls local police and politics. Because city authorities know people involved in the case, special prosecutors and a visiting judge are handling the case. 
 
 In a related development, Kent State University said it was reviewing the wrestling scholarship of an incoming Steubenville High School football player who may have hosted a party at which the girl was raped, Kent Patch reported. 
 
 "We understand the severity and the seriousness of the allegations, and as we collect more information we will take appropriate steps as warranted," a spokesman said. "We are now following the developments from Steubenville very closely." 
 
 Also on Saturday, the school posted a statement on its Facebook page stating, "University leaders are aware of the developing investigation in Steubenville, and we are gathering information from the proper authorities." 
 
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– CNN is getting slammed everywhere from Twitter to the blogosphere to mainstream media today, thanks to its coverage of the Steubenville rape verdict yesterday. After the teen boys were found guilty, anchor Candy Crowley kicked it to her reporter by saying, "I cannot imagine having just watched this on the feed coming in. How emotional that must have been sitting in the courtroom." Correspondent Poppy Harlow responded, "It was ... incredibly difficult even for an outsider like me to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart." More of the same followed, as Crowley, Harlow, and legal contributor Paul Callan continued to focus on the rapists rather than on the victim. Washington Post has a full transcript. A sample of the reactions: How about calling the boys what they are, suggests Laura Beck on Jezebel. The coverage should have been more along the lines of, "These two young rapists that had such promising futures—star football players, very good students, rapists—literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart because they brutally raped a girl." "Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond are not the 'stars' of the Steubenville rape trial," writes Mallory Ortberg on Gawker. "They aren't the only characters in a drama playing out in eastern Ohio. And yet a CNN viewer learning about the Steubenville rape verdict is presented with dynamic, sympathetic, complicated male figures, and a nonentity of an anonymous victim." The Huffington Post rounds up some of the incensed tweets, and editor Kia Makarechi calls the coverage "embarrassing and damaging." Other portions of CNN's coverage were similarly problematic, one activist points out to Poynter, such as the fact that the journalists focused on the victim being drunk. And CNN wasn't the only network with issues in its coverage, she adds: Nightline called the case a "cautionary tale for teenagers living in today's digital world." Good Morning America also got in on the act, the Atlantic Wire notes. Before the conviction, the show offered up "a sprawling preview ... with plenty of attention paid to the 'honors student' Mays and wrong-side-of-the-tracks Richmond. The piece ends on a sympathetic note, almost bemoaning the fact that the two teens 'face incarceration in a detention center until their 21st birthdays and the almost-certain demise of their dreams of playing football.'" The Frisky points out that the Onion brilliantly parodied this very circumstance back in 2011.