Wednesday, February 21, 2007

More on the Wilson Case

Sick of it yet? I know I am. But somehow as long as people are making Wilson out to be a victim I can't seem to let it go. Anyway, I came across this transcript of a segment from (you might want to sit down) The O'Reilly Factor from February 19th:
[Speaking to attorney B.J. Bernstein & attorney Sunny Hostin]
"We're going to show you a very disturbing piece of tape. It concerns a convicted sexual offender having sex with a 17-year old woman. She says it was rape, but a jury didn't convict Genarlow Wilson of that crime. Instead, the jury convicted him of another crime, the sexual abuse of a 15-year old girl. Wilson got ten years in a Georgia prison for that, and many in the liberal press objected to the sentence. Editorials in the New York Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other papers condemned the prison term, implying Wilson was the victim. A report on CNN called him 'a good son, a good athlete, a high school student with a 3.2 GPA.' Wilson is an object of sympathy in some quarters, but should he be? The 17-year old girl says she believed she was drugged, and by most accounts she seemed to be intoxicated. The reason we're reporting this story is sometimes the media glorifies people who don't deserve to be glorified. Mr. Wilson and his supporters want you to believe he's a victim; the girl wants you to believe she's a victim. Talking Points believes that once again the media has not reported the full story."

For more on the case, The Factor was joined by former prosecutor Sunny Hostin, who saw the tape showing Genarlow Wilson with the 17-year old. "It was vulgar and reprehensible," Hostin declared. "This woman was knocked out, there was no way she could have consented. She was dragged into a bathroom." But Wilson's lawyer B.J. Bernstein stressed that her client was acquitted of raping the woman. "The jurors spoke out that he was not guilty of rape, and the only thing they convicted him of was consensually receiving oral sex from a 15-year old. I don't say that Genarlow Wilson didn't do anything wrong. Was it right? No. Was it rape? No!" The Factor argued that Wilson is where he belongs, behind bars. "From what we can see on this tape, it doesn't look like this woman wanted it to happen. The media jumped out and said Wilson should be set free, but the tape shows that maybe this guy got what he deserved."


I can't emphasize enough how rare it is for me to agree with this man, or to reference Fox News as a credible source, but this time I'm glad to see someone in mainstream media pointing out that maybe Wilson isn't the victim/hero he's been made out to be.

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