Dear Editor,
I'm shocked by staff reporter Rocco Parascandola's apparent lack of journalistic professionalism in today's article "Police Look for Queens Sex Assault Suspect." Although couched in quotations from reliable sources, the article blatantly misrepresents the pervasiveness of violent sexual crimes in Queens and elsewhere. Of course, locals were shocked by a woman being attacked by a stranger at knifepoint. This disrupted their belief that "[t]his stuff doesn't really happen around here," as Parascandola quotes one witness saying. But Parascandola should know better. He should know that "this stuff" (i.e. violent sexual attacks at knifepoint by strangers) doesn't "really happen" frequently anywhere and, as important, that similar crimes in fact do happen in Astoria, distinguished from this incident only in that the criminals are not strangers. It is a reporter's job to provide enough context for readers to understand how the story fits into their world. In this case, this means not leading readers to believe that Astoria citizens are touched by such a crime for the first time with this poor woman's devastating experience, but instead reminding readers that violent rapes do happen with frequency-and perhaps even to remind us that they won't stop until we recognize this fact.
Sincerely,
Maria Brandt
375 Rugby Avenue
Rochester, NY 14619
585-242-0711
mbrandt@monroecc.edu
