Last week, I wrote about the near-abduction of an 11-year-old boy in north Houston, and how the largest news organization in this area omitted any reference to the at-large suspect’s race or ethnicity (and incidentally? clothes).
The Chronicle’s stance was, and is, a problem… but so is this:
An 11-year-old boy who claimed he was nearly abducted while walking to his north Houston elementary school later told police he made up the story in order to get attention from his mother, authorities said.
If the goal was to get attention, he succeeded in a spectacular way.
Contrary to Aesop’s fable, though, it isn’t only boys who cry wolf, and the fall-out isn’t confined to the person who fabricated.
Every time this happens, the authorities grow more cynical, the media more skeptical… and the public less safe.
I’d hate to think it was a jaded eye that led to the Chron’s original reporting, but it’s not outside the realms of possibility. And that, my friends, would be far more dangerous than omissions due to PC-filters.
There’s another real problem when folks make stuff like this up – in far too many cases, the authorities do manage to “catch” someone, and said someone has to go through a living nightmare (and maybe even a felony conviction, and real prison time) before they are able to clear their name.
I wonder, just how many incarcerations, how many executions, how many lynchings, were the result of someone “crying wolf“?
~EdT.