New guide for journalists reporting on campus sexual assault ignores accuracy, objectivity

Story here. Excerpt:

'Know Your IX, an organization dedicated to ending campus sexual violence (a worthy goal), has a new guide out for journalists and editors describing how to write about the problem.

Unfortunately, the guide enshrines the “guilty until proven innocent” mentality that is currently permeating college campuses. For example, the guide says not to use accurate terms such as “accuser” and “accused” and instead urges journalists to pre-judge the situation.

“[D]on’t refer to the survivor as ‘the accuser’ and the perpetrator as ‘the accused,’ as ‘accuser’ carries negative connotations and grammatically places the action upon the survivor, rather than the rapist,” the guide says. “Instead, use more neutral language — if you have permission to use the survivor’s name, refer to the survivor by their name throughout. Otherwise, use descriptors such as ‘the survivor’ or ‘the student,’ or consider using a pseudonym.”

The guide further notes that Title IX, the law that has been reinterpreted in recent years to allow colleges and universities act as investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and appellate in sexual assault cases, “is about civil rights, not criminal justice.”'