Sensitivity to Privacy or Important News Coverup?

A CBS News correspondent, Lara Logan, was sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square this week, after she was separated from the rest of the CBS crew amongst the mob scene. CBS, however did not report this story.

An article published by the Boston Herald, bemoans CBS's "sitting on the story." The author accuses the news station of trying to cover up an important news story, and critiques CBS for only addressing the situation once other news companies reported the story. The article also brings up an important point about the privacy of a rape victim, which is of particular interest to me because I am a trained advocate/counselor for sexual assault survivors. Maybe CBS did not report the story out of a sensitivity to Logan; it is traumatizing and embarrassing to be raped. And what could be worse than the whole world knowing about this? On the other hand, rape is a heinous crime, and the fact that this woman was raped in the middle of Tahrir Square definitely says something about the people and society if this was tolerable.

This story brings up an important issue in media: how much is too much? What information should be kept private for sensitivity reasons, and what is important enough to surpass that?

The author of the article is of the opinion that this story should have been reported, and I think this is valid. However, I can understand CBS's hesitance to publicize the story. I don't think they did it because they were trying to cover up something bad that occurred to their employee, rather I think they did it out of respect to Logan.

As a final note, the article brings up a cultural/societal issue: that of women being treated as lesser beings. In the U.S., there is constantly movement to equality of the sexes and woman are respected as human beings. However, this ideology is not prevalent amongst the world, and specifically amongst the Muslim population, where women often are punished after being raped. It is sad to think that as much rights and recognition women have gotten in the U.S. over the past 90 years, women in other places are still mistreated.