82Marine89
04-10-2008, 07:11 PM
Jesse Dirkhising (May 24, 1986 – September 26, 1999), also known as Jesse Yates, was an American teenage boy from Prairie Grove, Arkansas who was bound, drugged, tortured, raped, and died as a result of the position in which he was tied down.
Dirkhising's death, later ruled a murder, received only regional media coverage until a Washington Times article ran a story nearly a month after the death noting the lack of national coverage when contrasted to that of Matthew Shepard. The high-profile Shepard hate crime was approaching its one-year anniversary and as such was getting another round of national attention coupled with updates on pending hate-crime legislation. Prompted by the Washington Times article the Dirkhising case gained notoriety from conservative commentators comparing media coverage of the two cases and exploring the issues of what was considered a hate crime.
The resulting controversy resulted in mainstream media also reporting the Dirkhising case in relation to the lack of coverage compared to Shepard's case, with many explaining why the two were handled differently by the media and perhaps received differently by readers.
The media coverage of Dirkhising's case was repeatedly and consistently compared to that of Shepard although Dirkhising was a minor in a sex crime and Shepard's murder was a hate crime involving adults. The sexualities of the victims and attackers differed somewhat with Shepherd being an openly gay man attacked by two straight men while Dirkhising's attackers were both gay.
Full text (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Dirkhising)
Dirkhising's death, later ruled a murder, received only regional media coverage until a Washington Times article ran a story nearly a month after the death noting the lack of national coverage when contrasted to that of Matthew Shepard. The high-profile Shepard hate crime was approaching its one-year anniversary and as such was getting another round of national attention coupled with updates on pending hate-crime legislation. Prompted by the Washington Times article the Dirkhising case gained notoriety from conservative commentators comparing media coverage of the two cases and exploring the issues of what was considered a hate crime.
The resulting controversy resulted in mainstream media also reporting the Dirkhising case in relation to the lack of coverage compared to Shepard's case, with many explaining why the two were handled differently by the media and perhaps received differently by readers.
The media coverage of Dirkhising's case was repeatedly and consistently compared to that of Shepard although Dirkhising was a minor in a sex crime and Shepard's murder was a hate crime involving adults. The sexualities of the victims and attackers differed somewhat with Shepherd being an openly gay man attacked by two straight men while Dirkhising's attackers were both gay.
Full text (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Dirkhising)