For nearly two weeks, the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and crossed state lines to have an abortion became a flashpoint in the national abortion debate. President Biden and other Democrats argued that it showed the damage caused by the Supreme Court’s quashing of Roe v. Wade.
But the facts were scarce, and reporters struggled to corroborate a report in the Indianapolis Star that relied on a single cited source.
Conservative news media wondered if the girl existed. Jesse Watters, a Fox News host, suggested the story could be a “hoax” intended to support the position of abortion rights. The Wall Street Journal published a editorial on Tuesday with the headline, “An abortion story too good to confirm.”
People on the left were quick to criticize any media report that noted how little was known about the girl and the circumstances of the crime. On July 9, Glenn Kessler, a reporter at The Washington Post, wrote that he had been unable to confirm the details. “This is a very difficult story to verify,” he wrote, a conclusion that sparked a flurry of angry comments on The Post’s website. The case became an example of how, with a very biased issue, a single article can become the center of a heated debate.
The facts became clearer on Wednesday, when The Columbus Dispatch reported: that a man in Ohio had been charged with the rape.
But by then, the debate on the matter had thrown mainstream publications into an uneasy bind. A politicized story had evolved faster than reporters could gather information, feeding its own news cycle outside of the facts.
“It was so extreme that the questions about it were logical questions to ask,” said Kelly McBride, media ethics expert at the Poynter Institute. But, she added, journalists had to do the reporting to answer questions and “not just put out more opinions without more additional facts.”
A Fox News spokeswoman declined to comment on statements from Mr. Watters or other hosts, but pointed to network coverage at Tuesday that confirmed the case. A spokeswoman for the Wall Street Journal did not respond to requests for comment.
The Indianapolis Star first brought the matter to the public’s attention in a article on July 1 that examined restrictions on abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. The article referred to a case of Dr. Caitlin Bernard. dr. Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, treated a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who traveled to Indiana for abortion care for exceeding the newly imposed six-week abortion limit in her home state.
The gruesome story attracted international attention. A week later, Mr Biden quoted it in a White House speech in which he criticized the Supreme Court decision as “so totally wrong”.
But conservative politicians doubted the victim was real. They pointed out that the report was based on a single source, a doctor who had treated the patient. They noted that Dr. Bernard did not answer questions from other news organizations about the matter, and that there appeared to be no public documents to confirm this. Some called it “fake news.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost raised doubts about the case this week when he said in an interview on Fox News that he had found no evidence of such a victim and told USA Today Network Ohio office: “Shame on the Indianapolis newspaper that sent this thing to a single source that has a definite ax to grind.”
Steve Krakauer, a media critic for The First, a conservative publication of former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, was among those to tweet their skepticism, wondering if there would be any introspection in the media “when the 10-year-old – old abortion story turns out to be this year’s Jussie Smollett,” a reference to the actor convicted of a hate crime hoax.
In an interview, Mr Krakauer said he regretted the wording of his tweet. He said everyone would benefit from slowing down and not jumping to conclusions too quickly.
“There is a stampede on the right, especially now in this post-Trump world where the media has become a cultural conversation alongside just people covering the news, to show that this is just another example of how the media is at it. wrong end,” he said. said.
In its article on the case on Wednesday, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Gerson Fuentes, 27, had been arrested and charged in Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus for the rape of a child under 13 after confessing to police. Mr Fuentes has not yet made a plea.
During the court hearing, a police detective said the Columbus Police Department was first notified of the crime in late June and confirmed that the victim had had an abortion on June 30 in Indianapolis.
Amalie Nash, who oversees local news for the USA Today Network, which operates both the Indianapolis Star and the Columbus Dispatch, said in an interview that newsrooms in both states had worked together to confirm details of the case, including seeking records that could be publicly reported.
“I don’t think it’s a huge surprise that when a story of the kind comes out that can be used by both sides of the political spectrum to advance its causes, something like this will happen, that it’s going to be questioned,” Ms. nash.
Ms. Nash said Wednesday’s scoop had received about 1.5 million views from readers so far — a lot for a local newspaper.
“Our reporter was the only one who was in court during the arraignment, and that’s someone who’s in the community, who’s sourcing, who’s able to get there much faster than anyone on a national scale could,” she said. . said.
Some publications that had weighed in on the case have updated their articles with the new information. Mr Kessler of The Washington Post wrote on Twitter: “Now a rapist has been charged and the story has been updated. Getting a lot of angry emails, but journalism is an accumulation of facts.”
The Wall Street Journal reported the new facts in an editorial on Thursday. But it argued that the way to help the country find a consensus on abortion is to “ensure that stories of abortion, from both sides of the debate, can be easily corroborated.”
Conservative news media were less remorseful and focused on Mr. Fuentes as an undocumented immigrant. mr. Watters, the Fox News host who had been questioning the case, said Wednesday night that his TV show had “put the pressure on and now we are happy that justice is being served”.
Mr Yost, the Ohio Attorney General, who had suggested the story was made up, released a statement Wednesday that read, “My heart aches because of the pain this young child has suffered.”
Others turned their attention to Dr. Bernard. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said on Fox News Wednesday night that he would investigate whether the doctor had not reported the assault and abortion, suggesting that Dr. Bernard hadn’t done that in other cases.
On Thursday, the Indianapolis Star reported that the documents obtained through a public file request showed that Dr. Bernard had made the required reports. Kathleen DeLaney, an attorney for Dr. Bernard, said in a statement that Dr. Bernard considers legal action against Mr. Rokita and others. Mr Rokita replied: “As we said, we are collecting evidence from multiple sources and agencies regarding these allegations. Our legal review of it remains open.”