The Buffalo News is doing most of the actual reporting in the Patrick Kane rape accusation story, and with that great power comes great responsibility. Kane is a demigod in Buffalo, just like he is in Chicago, so reporting on an issue this sensitive involving him requires more than a bit of courage by definition.
While TBN has indeed been courageous at times with some excellent fact-finding and strong reporting, their decisions to give SkyBar Owner Mark Croce a platform in this discussion, and the way in which they did so, are inexplicable and indefensible.
The idea that the bar owner hasn’t taken a side here is ridiculous.
Tab Bamford, of Committed Indians.com, along with myself, appeared on Xers Radio “Maximus and the Bartender” this week, and I suggest you listen to Tab’s segment on the show, which begins at the 20 minute mark.
The audio is embedded below:
As Tab (@The1Tab) and Craig Williams (@bartenderradio) pointed out (around the 39 minute mark), the media is dropping the ball here.
“I think Buffalo’s journalistic community has left a lot to be desired with how information has come out,” said Bamford.
“The story they ran, saying he (the bar owner) doesn’t have skin in the game, is just a flying load of horse crap.”
“Kane was supposed to have a Cup party there two nights two later. There are legal implications if someone gets drugged, or drunk and something happened at a bar, he’s potentially liable in a civil suit.”
“To say that he (Croce) has no skin in the game is laughable.”
Therefore, it was totally irresponsible of the newspaper to give Croce the voice that they did. On top of that, they decided to publish his story of a woman hanging all over Patrick Kane and chasing after him outside the bar, with Croce himself admitting that he doesn’t know if that woman is in fact the same woman as the accuser.
Did Patrick Kane have a woman who could be classified as a “cleat chaser” or a “jersey chaser” hanging all over him that night?
Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. It is irrelevant in this case.
We know that Patrick Kane has sports groupies fawning all over him quite often, but extremely aggressive flirting is not sexual consent. If a woman invites herself into your home, and then invites herself into your bed, but still doesn’t want to have sex, and force it anyway, it’s rape. Although the scenario just described sounds far-fetched, it does actually happen quite frequently. If a woman changes her mind about wanting to have sex, at any point, and you still proceed, it’s rape. There is no grey area.
It’s shocking and alarming that we still have to reiterate this in 2015. Williams did a fine job explaining this basic truth and elaborating on it with Tab on the show.
It is the job of columnists, analysts and professional commentators to have an informed opinion on the top news stories of the day, but that discussion is part of the court of public opinion, not in a court of law. Yet we’re seeing blogs and websites with horrifyingly bad reputations all but out the identity of the accused, engage in shaming and blaming the accuser, and then spin this situation into Patrick Kane being the victim.
As morally deplorable as it is to publicly identify the accuser and then slander her at the same time, you knew it was coming. It’s the same old cliched neanderthal “she’s out for money/setting him up/was totally asking for it” bit.
This narrative originates with those who idolize and revere Patrick Kane, and possess an inability to reconcile the idea that maybe their hero isn’t actually a model citizen off the ice.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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