More on the Boy Scouts Abetting Child Abuse, Which Is So Sad for Them, Obviously

[Content Note: Sexual violence; rape culture.]

Last month, I wrote about the LA Times' review of internal documents from the Boy Scouts of America which "found suspected abusers regularly remained in the organization after officials were first presented with sexual misconduct allegations."

Yesterday, the LA Times published another piece: "Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show." The subtitle summarizes: "When volunteers and employees were suspected of sexually abusing children, Boy Scout officials often didn't tell police, files from 1970-91 reveal. In many cases they sought to hide the situation."

There is nothing I can say about this reprehensible contempt for child victims of sexual violence in order to protect predators that I have not said a dozen times before (see also: Catholic Church; Penn State), but I do want to highlight a stunning example, care of Jessica, of how this story is being covered.

Reuters: "Boy Scouts face release of damaging child sex abuse files."

And if the concern for the poor abetters of child sex abuse having to "face" publicized evidence of their failure to protect children from rapists isn't explicit enough in the headline for you, the lede of that story is: "The Boy Scouts of America could face a wave of bad publicity as decades of records of confirmed or alleged child molesters within the U.S. organization are expected to be released in coming weeks."

Oh noes! Not a wave of bad publicity! Oh the humanity!

Gross.

This, too, is what the rape culture looks like: More public concern for blowback on behalf of rape abettors than for victims, because obviously there's nothing worse, ahem, than having your reputation ruined over a little thing like turning your face away from the sexual abuse of children.

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