Box Turtle Bulletin
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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 8th, 2011
Maris in her pink dress (Photo courtesy of Maris)
In CNN’s teaser and on the live broadcast last night, when discussing Kirk’s effeminacy, a picture of a child in a frilly dress floated by. London’s Daily Mail presented the picture with the descriptive footer: “His mother says she was concerned about his effeminate behaviour, which included liking girls’ clothes.”
This gave the distinct but false impression that Kirk was the child in the dress. But the picture is not of Kirk; it is of his sister Maris. However this picture is valuable to the family as it illustrates Kirk’s character and selflessness. See the importance of this dress at Maris’ Eulogy
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AdrianT
June 8th, 2011
Timothy, I suggest you contact the newsdesk at the Mail about this on tel: +44 90)20 7938 6000
AdrianT
June 8th, 2011
Sorry I’ll repost – ignore above:
+44 (0)20 7938 6000
justme
June 8th, 2011
It’s inexcusable that this lovely photo of Maris has been misused in this way and mars the otherwise exemplary mainstream reporting. I only learned about its misuse by reading what you’ve reported. Thank you for making a point to point it out.
Jim Burroway
June 8th, 2011
I just called the Mail. They said they will fix it.
Other Fred in the UK
June 9th, 2011
I am afraid I am very cynical but ‘The Daily Mail’ is enough said already.
ken
June 9th, 2011
Don’t know much about the Daily Mail, but to be clear, it was CNN that 1st used the photo in a montage.
You might want to contact CNN as well.
TampaZeke
June 9th, 2011
You need to contact Anderson Cooper. It was VERY irresponsible for CNN to post that picture in a series of pictures of Kirk. It gave me and I’m sure EVERYONE else the impression that it was a picture of Kirk. Homosexuality and gender discordance are two entirely different things and though such treatment would have been equally as wrong and outrageous had Kirk been transgender, it confuses the issue and muddies the water when CNN, seemingly intentionally, promotes the false impression that the child in the dress is Kirk.
It’s very poor journalism that puts the credibility of the entire, otherwise awesome, series in jeopardy.
Timothy Kincaid
June 9th, 2011
ken,
In reviewing the clips now online, it appears that CNN is no longer using that pic in its effeminacy montage. I’m annoyed that it went live with the image but at least it has been pulled now.
Jay Jonson
June 9th, 2011
It is especially important that CNN remedy the false impression that the picture is of Kirk since in reality Kirk was not extremely effeminate. That “evaluation” was simply made up by Rekers to make it sound more remarkable when he “cured” him using the barbaric methods he did. An important point of the investigation is the number of lies Rekers told in his faux-scientific experiment. That makes it even more important that CNN and other reports on this outrage be scrupulously factual.
Rich
June 9th, 2011
i thought that was kirk in the dress
and i watched the segment twice
wow
it didn’t matter
but just made that assumption
Kerry
June 10th, 2011
CNN had very bad editing. I thought the EXACT same thing when I saw the piece – that the picture was Kirk in a dress. The editing staff at AC360 are professionals and they knew exactly what they were doing. Shame on you closet-case Anderson Cooper.
Tim Hulsey
June 10th, 2011
BTB should receive some sort of award for this coverage. It really is superb journalism.
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