Jesse Dirkhising (May 24, 1986 – September 26, 1999) was a 13-year-old boy who was raped and tortured by two men in 1999. Dirkhising died soon after as a result of his torture. Controversy ensued over the lack of coverage in mainstream media outlets of Dirkhising's murder. This lack of coverage was attributed to the homosexuality of the perpetrators by conservative commentators and media organizations. is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ...

Death

On September 26, 1999, police in Rogers, Arkansas, responded to a 911 call and went to the home of David Carpenter, 38. They also found Jesse Dirkhising, a 13-year-old boy from nearby Prairie Grove, tied to a mattress. Also present was Joshua Brown, 22. Police determined that Dirkhising had been repeatedly raped over a period of several hours. is the 269th day of the year (270th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... For the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area see Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area Rogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. ... For other uses, see 911 (disambiguation). ... Prairie Grove is a city located in Washington County, Arkansas. ...

Dirkhising's ankles, knees and wrists had been bound in duct tape and he was gagged and blindfolded with his own underwear, held in place with a bandanna that was also used as a gag. He had been administered a sedative. He died in hospital shortly after being discovered, apparently as the result of positional asphyxia. The affidavit ^[1] has much more detail on the Dirkhising's death. Suffocation redirects here, for the band, see Suffocation (band). ...

Aftermath

The Arkansas State Police recorded in their affidavit a statement by Brown that he was Carpenter's lover and that he had been involved in molesting Dirkhising for at least two months prior to Dirkhising's death. Official language(s) English Capital Little Rock Largest city Little Rock Largest metro area Little Rock Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 29th  - Total 53,179 sq mi (137,002 km²)  - Width 239 miles (385 km)  - Length 261 miles (420 km)  - % water 2. ...

In March 2001 Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape. He was sentenced to life in prison, and this sentence was upheld on appeal by the Arkansas Supreme Court in September 2003. In April, Carpenter pleaded guilty to similar charges and was also sentenced to life. Subsequently, Carpenter claimed on the Fox News Channel that Brown was solely responsible for the rape and murder of Dirkhising while Brown claimed that Carpenter was the director.^[2] Murder is both a legal and a moral term, that are not always coincident. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... In law, an appeal is a process for making a formal challenge to an official decision. ... A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case in which a prosecutor and a defendant arrange to settle the case against the defendant. ... Fox News redirects here. ...

Accusations of bias

A central element of the treatment of the case by conservative commentators was the comparison of media coverage of Jesse Dirkhising's death with coverage of the murder of Matthew Shepard. Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was fatally attacked near Laramie, on the night of October 6 – October 7, 1998 in what was widely reported by international news media as a savage beating because of his homosexuality. ...

On October 22, 1999, The Washington Times, ran a story headed: "Media tune out torture death of Arkansas boy." The story contrasted the lack of coverage of the Dirkhising case with the treatment the murder of Matthew Shepard received. The story quoted Tim Graham, director of media studies at Media Research Center, a media watchdog group that frequently criticizes "liberal bias", as saying, "Nobody wants to say anything negative about homosexuals. Nobody wants to be seen on the wrong side of that issue." ^{[citation needed]}. Brent Bozell, the Director of the Media Research Centre, accused the media of deliberately spiking the story.^[3] is the 295th day of the year (296th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... The Washington Times[1] is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., United States. ... Image:BBozell. ... Liberal bias is a common phrase used in American political discourse to express the view that the American media generally has a liberal bias. ... Leo Brent Bozell III[1] (born July 14, 1955 in Washington, DC[1]), better known as L. Brent Bozell III[2], L. Brent Bozell, or simply Brent Bozell[3], is the founder and president of the Media Research Center, the Conservative Communications Center, and the Cybercast News Service. ...

This theme was then picked up by other media outlets and commentators. Bill O'Reilly wrote: It has been suggested that Bill OReilly political beliefs and points of view be merged into this article or section. ...

The question is stark and brutal. If the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man, by two drunken thugs in Laramie, Wyoming, was a national story and a heinous hate crime, why wasn't the killing of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising publicized the same way? Jesse was tortured, sodomized and finally killed by a gay man as another homosexual watched in the small town of Rogers, Arkansas. Yet the national media ignored the crime, causing outrage among those who see hate crimes as a tool being used to hammer the agendas of special interests. The two men who murdered Shepard have been convicted and, most likely, will spend the rest of their lives in prison. But the two men allegedly involved in the killing of Jesse Dirkhising have yet to be tried, and when they are, you may not even hear about it.^{[citation needed]} Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County in the U.S. state of Wyoming. ... François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le pot pourri de Loth (1781). ...

The most salient difference between the Shepard case and this one is that while Shepard's murderers were driven to kill by hate, the boy's rape and death was a sex crime. It was repulsive, unconscionable — and the predictable pastime of perverted criminals... Matthew Shepard died not because of an all-too-common sex crime, but because of prejudice. Essentially, Shepard was lynched — taken from a bar, beaten and left to die because he was the vilified "other," whom society has often cast as an acceptable target of abuse; Dirkhising was just "another" to a pair of deviants. And while child abuse is unfortunately no big news, lynching still is." Sex crimes are forms of human sexual behavior that are crimes. ... Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Gay bashing Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial...

In the month after Shepard's murder, Nexis recorded 3,007 stories about his death. In the month after Dirkhising's murder, Nexis recorded 46 stories about his.^{[citation needed]} However, once the media seized on the story, this count rapidly rose into the thousands. ^[4] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

On 4 November 1999, Jonathan Gregg addressed the issue in Time magazine. He posed the rhetorical question: "Could it be because we in the media elite were unwilling to publicize crimes committed by homosexuals because it didn't suit our agenda? The next stop in that line of reasoning was clear: That news is controlled by a bunch of gay-loving liberals only too happy to wield a double standard." is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... “TIME” redirects here. ... A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than to receive an answer. ... Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of...

In his column, Gregg wrote that the discrepancy in media attention was:

because it [the murder of Dirkhising] offered no lessons. Shepard's murder touches on a host of complex and timely issues: intolerance, society's attitudes toward gays and the pressure to conform, the use of violence as a means of confronting one's demons. Jesse Dirkhising's death gives us nothing except the depravity of two sick men. There is no lesson here, no moral of tolerance, no hope to be gleaned in the punishment of the perpetrators."

Accusations of homophobia

Gay conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote an article in The New Republic accusing the liberal media of political correctness and using the opportunity to attack the Human Rights Campaign for its support of hate crime legislation. Sullivan also criticised some aspects of the conservative coverage of the Dirkhising case equating gay sex with child molestation as "ugly nonsense".^[5] Conservatism in the United States comprises a constellation of political ideologies including fiscal conservatism, free market or economic liberalism, social conservatism,[1] bioconservatism and religious conservatism,[2][3] as well as support for a strong military,[4] small government and promotion of states rights. ... Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is a libertarian conservative author and political commentator, distinguished by his often personal style of political analysis, and last, and often contended, in technology terms, yet to be determined, the number one solo pioneer in the field of pseudo-conversational political blog journalism. ... For other uses, see New Republic. ... Claims of media bias in the United States attract constant attention. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... HRC logo The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is one of the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equal rights organization in the United States. ... A Jewish cemetery in France after being defaced by Neo-Nazis. ... Sexual abuse is physical or psychological abuse that involves crimes in most countries. ...

On November 14, 1999, E. R. Shipp, ombudsman at The Washington Post, noted that: "readers, prodded by commentators who are hostile to homosexuals and to what they view as a ‘liberal’ press" had raised questions about the Dirkhising case. She noted that the Post had run a story from the Associated Press on the Dirkhising murder. Shipp, said however, that she "made a clear distinction" between the Dirkhising and Shepard cases: "Matthew Shepard’s death sparked public expressions of outrage that themselves became news... That Jesse Dirkhising’s death has not done so is hardly the fault of the Washington Post." This stance by Shipp led to a journalistic exchange between her and Joseph Farah of the World Net Daily. ^{[citation needed]} is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... For the Canadian television series, see Ombudsman (TV series). ... The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ... Joseph Farah is a conservative Christian Lebanese-American journalist with over 30 years of experience, married to Elizabeth Farah and founder of WorldNetDaily (WND), for which he writes a daily commentary. ... World Net Daily, also known as WND, is a conservative online news site. ...

Jonathan Gregg, in the aforementioned Time magazine editorial, asserted that, "[the killing of Dirkhising] was the kind of depraved act that happens with even more regularity against young females, and, indeed, if the victim had been a 13-year-old girl, the story would probably never have gotten beyond Benton County, much less Arkansas. (There is, of course, a double standard there.) Matthew Shepard died not because of an all-too-common sex crime, but because of prejudice." The same editorial also said: "A red herring worth addressing at the outset is the failure to distinguish between homosexuality and pedophilia, which creates a false parallel at the core of the [Washington] Times' argument. A double standard would be in effect had the media ignored a situation where two gay men killed a straight man for being straight. But sex with children is a crime regardless of the sexes involved, and is not synonymous with homosexuality....The reason the Dirkhising story received so little play is because it offered no lessons. Shepard's murder touches on a host of complex and timely issues: intolerance, society's attitudes toward gays and the pressure to conform, the use of violence as a means of confronting one's demons. Jesse Dirkhising's death gives us nothing except the depravity of two sick men."^[6] “TIME” redirects here. ...

References

External links

• The Affidavit in the Jesse Dirkhising Case Parental Discretion Advised
• Media Coverage Criticism
• The tragic story of Jesse Dirkhising - WND
• Traditional Values Coalition Article on the conviction of the murderers of Dirkhising
• Editorial on the impact of the murder on homosexual culture
• The Dirkhising Case: An Obligation to Youth
• "Not a hate crime", by Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily.com