The Asylum story yesterday about drink spiking is perhaps one of the worst cases of irresponsible journalism I have seen in quite some time. This is probably because I don't often read the dregs of web media, but it's still pretty bad. Citing a study of Australian "drink spiking victims", Jeremy Taylor presents a "happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with!" Out of women who claim their drinks were spiked, NONE of their claims were true. Nope, they just drank themselves into a stupor and made up a story about being drugged to absolve themselves of responsibility.
The report itself is offensive enough (I want to see some credentials and more information on that report's sources), but the article's tone is also dismissive to the point of causing harm. Taylor's use of quotation marks when using the word victim, rather than taking issue with the semantics, serves to dismiss the real trauma of countless women who have been drugged. It negates the plausibility of all such claims of abuse.
There's no use arguing how damaging such dismissive rhetoric is, especially in cases of violence against women. We have a few decades, at least, of wrongfully dismissed rape cases and countless women afraid to report real crimes for fear of being called a liar or worse for proof of damage. Also, I'd be preaching to the choir. But I think it's worth getting really riled up about. And I think it's worth pointing out the last line of the article, as well: "We tried to use the 'my drink must have been spiked' excuse with a girlfriend once. No, we are no longer dating".
Taylor's use of humor, from the epitaph of the article to its closing line, makes the issue of date rape and the spiking of drinks into a punchline. Not only is this offensive, it is completely inexcusable. While the author himself deserves to be punished, the media network who allowed the article to be written and then linked to more prominent news outlets (like AOL, where i found it) should also be held accountable. While citing a vague report, presenting unsubstantiated claims is reckless and irresponsible, it is important to realize that when the issue is as important and sensitive as this, the stakes are even higher. The standards of journalism should be too.
