“There is not one shred of evidence,” AG Dave Yost said in an interview with the USA Today Network’s Ohio bureau last Tuesday, just one day before the story was confirmed.
In an era of partisan media bias, local reporters demonstrate the “real journalistic skills” of reviewing court records and speaking with law enforcement necessary to uncover the truth. The journalist, Bethany Brunner of the Columbus Dispatch, was the only reporter in the courtroom the day the rape suspect was arraigned.
Brunner found the court case on the county clerk’s website, and in court, police confirmed that the suspect had confessed and that the young victim had gone to Indiana for an abortion, Nicole Carroll, president of Gannett’s news division and editor-in-chief of USA Today, said.
Some right-wing media personalities flat-out presented the story as a hoax — until Brunner found out that a suspect had been arrested and confessed to the crime.
The series of events underscores the importance of local news, Carroll said.
CNN political analyst Natasha Alfred said the case is a clear example of the effects of partisan media behavior, which leads many Americans to expect their news source of choice to confirm what they already believe.
“What was appalling is that people went on TV and cast doubt on the story without even making an effort to find the facts,” Alfred said.
Medical history
Abortion is a medical issue, but when doctors share stories with reporters, the accounts are secondhand and it can be difficult to confirm details. Patient confidentiality is also paramount, and many rape victims do not want to subject themselves to the media gaze.
On Friday, Indiana’s attorney general received a cease and desist order for allegedly “false and defamatory” statements he made about the doctor who performed the 10-year-old’s abortion. AG Todd Rokita said authorities are investigating Barnard for possibly failing to report the abortion and child abuse, even though documents show she did report the incident.
It can be challenging for healthcare providers to speak up in this media environment as well.
Fox’s Jesse Waters posted Bernard’s face on his show, suggesting she may have been part of a cover-up.
“(Health care workers) were very scared that they could be the next doctors with their picture in the national news, threatened by an attorney general,” Dr. Tracy Wilkinson, who wrote a guest essay for the New York Times that was intended to be written co-authored with Bernard, said. “And it’s very chilling.”
Wilkinson said she would like media coverage to focus on the broader landscape of abortion access. She’s a pediatrician, not an abortion provider, but she’s still nervous about practicing medicine in Indiana.
“Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon, which is where focusing on this one story is the problem,” Wilkinson said. “I wish the focus was not on just one patient, but on the many, many patients who are fighting for access to abortion every day, long before the Supreme Court decision was made.”
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