Today the paper seems to have disappeared and replaced with opinionated television news segments and social media platforms that always dictate the narrative rather than allow a reasonably developed opinion. We rarely, if ever, witness an errors and corrections segment on the 6 o’clock news or an apology statement on social media platforms. We see reporters seeking pro-registry supporters for an eight-second impromptu camera appearance, citing, “they need to be on the registry!”

Recently in the Eastern part of North Carolina, people were accused of sex crimes. The names of the accused were splattered all over the television and social media sites. What makes this interesting is that the people indicted or criminally charged had their charges dropped because of false statements by victims. You won’t find any section marked errors and corrections to restore dignity to the accused. Instead, they are forced to rebuild their shattered lives while the same newsagents go about their business as if nothing happened with no regard for the harm they levied.

What makes matters worse is that the news agencies and social media platforms that created a panic culture of a predator on the loose quickly forgot about the true predator that made the false claim. It seems incredible that news and social media are habitually responsible for maintaining a false narrative about sex crimes when it appears that, in some cases, there is nothing to lose by “victims” reporting a false claim. If police and prosecutors won’t punish those for making false police reports, what is the incentive for the news and social media to post an error or correction?

If the registry was supposed to keep the public safe from predatory sexual offenses, then why is it that news, social media, police, prosecutors, and pro-registry allies shield “predators that pretend to be victims” who break the law and lie to communities about false sexual claims? Maybe this is why public trust in police, social media, the press, and our legal system is deteriorating at a rapid level. There isn’t a big rubber band or plastic sleeve to keep this mess together.

Read plainly, the story below would lead anyone to believe (certainly many registered citizens, and even people in law enforcement) that one’s requirement to register as a sex offender in North Carolina also includes a prohibition on his ability to download or possess ANY pornography (however it’s defined). Just to be clear, we are NOT talking about child pornography (again, however that is defined, which nobody really knows from one jurisdiction to the next), but merely the garden variety pornographic material that fills the pages of most retail magazines and websites these days.

Missing from the story is a significant fact that the reporter(s) has a duty to make abundantly clear: Mr. Foster was on probation and the prohibition on downloading or possessing pornography was a condition imposed (and a reasonable one, probably) by his supervising officer(s).

Where CBS-North Carolina republishes the deputy’s statement that Foster possessed “images which were in violation of the special conditions for Registered Sex Offenders,” it does so with a cavalier disregard for the truth and conveniently hides behind a false official statement. While it’s legal for CBS-North Carolina to publish the utterances of local law enforcement officials, solid journalism would seek to ensure that the public isn’t led to believe falsehoods merely because they’re uttered by government officials. That’s exactly the sort of “fake news” that makes it possible for such a charge to stick.

To be clear, there is ABSOLUTELY NO restriction in North Carolina on downloading or possessing pornography by registered sex offenders who are not ALSO serving some form of court-ordered supervision. ZERO. Any statement otherwise is a lie, be it official or not.

STATESVILLE, N.C. (WBTV) — A registered sex offender in Iredell County is facing charges after authorities said he had pornographic images, deputies say.

According to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, 26-year-old Kevin Anthony Foster had several pornographic images on his electronic devices. Deputies arrested Foster on Nov. 29 for a probation violation, and he was given a $100,000 secured bond.

On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office said deputies continued to investigate the electronic devices and Foster was additionally charged with two felony counts of failing to inform of new changes to online identifiers. He was given no bond on those charges, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies say Foster was convicted in 2013 of felony indecent liberties with a child. He was placed on 36 months supervised probation after serving jail time and was placed on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry, according to deputies.

While on the registry, Foster is not allowed to have “pornographic material of any kind,” deputies said.

Deputies released this statement Tuesday:

“There is no evidence at this time to show he possessed child pornography although he did possess images which were in violation of the special conditions for Registered Sex Offenders.”

Source

She justified this by saying that there is “such a high rate of recidivism” for those who commit these types of offenses, and when another program regular indicated that she didn’t know what that meant, Ms. Hostin said, “He’ll reoffend; he’ll do it over and over again.” She stated it as fact, much the same way she would have said that the earth is round. No one blinked; no one questioned.

There is absolutely NO “high rate of recidivism” among registered sex offenders, and not a single academically-vetted study of recidivism that has ever demonstrated an across-the-board rate higher than 10% in more than twenty years of published statistical data.

In fact, what more recent and reliable studies (such as here, here, and here) DO demonstrate is that the average rate of recidivism among sex offenders nationwide hovers comfortably somewhere between 3 and 6 percent.

The ladies of “The View” should stop lying to the public by repeating false data as scientific truth.

Those in the scientific community as well as those, such as NARSOL, who advocate for truth and facts in legislation, must take every opportunity to challenge the Hollywood-type media when such false information is spoken as truth.

This is by no means the first popular talk-television program to throw out false figures and information about those who are labeled sexual offenders as though they were written in stone. And it almost certainly will not be the last.

The consumers of such programs do not know such remarks are made out of complete ignorance. It is possible that very few of them read, for example, the Washington Post, where they might encounter academic pieces filled with the actual facts about those who have been adjudicated for a previous sexual offense.

It is even less likely that they will have read actual research by learned scholars, experts in the field, or any of the huge body of evidence accumulated for the past twenty-plus years showing the very low reoffense rate for previously convicted sexual offenders.

The general American public gets its information from shows such as The View, Dr. Phil, and even Law and Order. This information shapes their views and beliefs. In reliance on those views and beliefs, they elect representatives who, often no more knowledgeable, create laws. When laws are created that are grounded on lies and myths rather than facts and evidence, everyone loses.

Not only do we end up with dysfunctional public policy —the public sex offender registry–and several million needlessly destroyed lives, but we totally fail to address the actual causes and possible remedies of the very real issue of sexual violence throughout our culture.

For reasons that these three crime-fighting quill-smiths either overlooked or cautiously avoided, such a law, if ever passed (and that’s dubious, at best), would have to be written in such a way that it only applied to a registered citizen’s prior residences. And, as time passed, these residences would grow in number and ubiquity as registered citizens move here and yon. Fast forward 20 or 30 years and there would likely be registered addresses all over the state, and lots of unregistered people living in the former addresses of registered citizens. These innocent people would have no idea why and no legal remedy to free themselves, or their property, from the stigma of registration.

Or let’s think of another “hypothetical” that is more likely to suffer from the stupendous and absurdly moronic opinion that has issued from the mind of not one, but THREE, “educated” journalists in Halifax County. My registered address was once the same as my mother’s. Now that I have moved, her home address is no longer associated with my registration. That’s the way it should be.

But I do occasionally visit my mother. And I typically stay the night in her home at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes even for the New Year holiday. It would be tremendously burdensome for me to track down a legitimate law enforcement agency on Christmas Eve just for the ridiculous purpose of letting them know (and ostensibly the entire population of the planet) that I was planning to spend the night at my former registered residence which just also happens to be my mom’s, a home built by her dad and sitting on property that has been home to the family since the 1820s.

The Herald‘s suggested fix to this newly discovered “loophole” would not serve any legitimate public safety purpose but WOULD merely expose an elderly citizen of North Carolina to potential threats and harassment by the very people the editorial staff is likely to inflame: gun totin’ sycophants who remain whipped into a psychotic frenzy by the constant drumbeat of sex offender paranoia that has gripped the nation for more than two decades (beginning with the now laughable histrionics of alleged satanic rituals involving children in the late 1980s).

There is not a great deal to worry about here. Not only is the Daily Herald‘s readership abysmally low, but the suggested fix would likely find its way to the first garbage receptacle in legislative bill drafting after staff attorneys got done with it. But what is most disturbing is how far out of touch the media increasingly seems amidst a growing consensus among legal and academic experts that our nation’s policies regarding people formerly convicted of a sex offense are based on false statistical data and an unreasonable (and unsupported) level of fear among rank and file Americans.

But it’s that very fear that the editorial staff intends on fostering. Fear sells newspapers. And boy do they ever need to sell a few!