"Sex Offender" sensationalism and responsible reporting.

January 28, 2015 FAC Contributor #1 0 Comments min read

Our nation loves stories about sex. You throw “sex” into a headline and you’re guaranteed readership.

FAC’s legislative committee keeps track of Bills that concern sex offenders and generally does a really good job of staying on top of what’s going on in Tallahassee so we can endorse Bills that improve public safety and oppose ones that don’t.

That is why the headline from Ft Meyer’s NBC 2 caught us by surprise (http://www.nbc-2.com/story/27955578/bill-would-let-minors-secretly-record-sexual-abusers). The headline read, “Bill would let minors secretly record sexual abusers.” We scan for keywords that would have brought any such bill on our radar, so we wondered what filters failed to let a bill about anything “sexual” slip through.

As it turns out, the bill, while it can be construed as applying to sexual abuse, does not directly address that. It can be applied to child abuse, neglect or even bullying. The text of the bill is below:

“It is lawful under ss. 934.03-934.09 for a child under 18 years of age to intercept and record an oral communication if the child is a party to the communication and has reasonable grounds to believe that recording the communication will capture a statement by another party to the communication that the other party intends to commit, is committing, or has committed an unlawful act of physical force or violence against the child.”

Since most citizens don’t actually read the text of bills, they rely on the media in formulating their opinions as to what the bill is all about.

Setting aside whether this bill is a good idea or bad idea; presume that NBC 2 had instead spun the story in a different direction; that children would now be secretly recording their parents hoping to catch them saying, “I’m going to go get my belt…” in the hope that they can use the threat of arrest to get their way? I’m sure parents would think twice before calling their legislator to support the bill.

Viewers rely on the news to represent the facts and they have a responsibility to do so. News stations should not be tabloids.

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