A Letter to the Managing Editor of The Gazette
Ma’am,
I write today in response to the opinion piece printed in today’s edition of The Gazette, written by Pat Hickey, concerning Theo Fleury and the Graham James case.
While I support a newspaper’s right and duty to print columns from a broad variety of viewpoints, on this issue you’ve overreached. The lengths gone to by the author to smear the actions of Mr. Fleury and to create a hierarchy amongst the victims of sexual abuse explodes the boundaries of both good and acceptable journalism. Rather, it inhabits a world outside of journalism, where cowboy opinion making is permitted in the guise of “one man’s view” and isn’t required to pass the basic criterium of truth and factuality general attributed to the “news”.
Mr. Hickey is obviously speaking on a subject about which he knows very little. I can relate. I don’t claim to be an expert on the issue of sexual abuse and the effects that abuse might have on its victims. As such, I see it as the prudent move to avoid sweeping assumptions about the lasting psychological effects of such a heinous violation as sexual abuse, nor would I claim to understand why sexual abuse effects different people in different ways for different periods of time.
Joshua Hind undresses the Gazette over an opinion piece about Theo Fleury, sexual abuse, and journalistic standards.
Not that there’s a lesson here or anything, but I’d say he’s got the sweater over their heads while they’re still trying to get their elbow pads off …