July 14, 2019

It is the very essence of rape culture that journalists and mainstream outlets seem overly occupied with softening the crimes of rapists. It seeps into all of our consciousnesses, to the point where even judges, when handing down sentences, seem more concerned about the rapist's future reputation than the victim's rights.

And now with the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, and the dogged reporting of the Miami Herald of his rapes and sex trafficking of girls, the media finds itself in a place where they need to talk about these crimes again, and they're being as gentle as disgraced Labor Secretary Alex Acosta in the way they cover them.

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And make no mistake, Epstein is not the only predator who gets this treatment.

There should be no interest in minimizing these crimes for the benefit of the accused. We need to know the full horror of what's happened to these victims.

If we had done this to Jeffrey Epstein the first time he was arrested, that sweetheart deal he got from Acosta may not have been even possible. And now that this investigation has spread to see how Epstein's crimes infiltrated the justice system, corporate America and now, even international concerns, it is ever more critical that we stay very precise and specific about the violations and crimes that Epstein has allegedly committed and not "nice it up" to minimize the horror of what happened.

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