Fox News, Apologize For Revealing Steubenville Victim's Name

We, the undersigned, find Fox News’ failure to protect the Steubenville rape victim’s identity as negligent as well as disrespectful and potentially harmful to her.

Notably at the time the network pledged to protect the names of the accused minors, whose names had already been disclosed, Fox didn’t bother to also ensure protection of the victim’s identity. Having now revealed her name to the public, it seems as though the disclosure was intentional. At the very least it appears that no extra effort was made to diligently protect her identity.

The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence says arguments that sexual abuse victims should be treated as any other crime victim ignores “important and unique aspects of the crimes of rape and sexual assault.“ And NAESV warns that this attitude is at least partly responsible for many of these crimes, despite their prevalence, going unreported. 

While a pair of CNN hosts were criticized for sympathizing with the rapists and making little mention of the victim, that network at least made the effort to censor her name from Mays’ recorded apology.

Fox should have censored the name as well and owes the victim an apology for failing to protect her identity. It should also make an extra effort to prevent this from happening again - to any sexual abuse victim.

We request that Fox apologize for this careless negligence.