There’s no longer much foreign reporting on television with the exception of natural disasters, or countries where Americans are engaged in military action. That’s certainly true of Europe — except for Britain. The networks, surely focused on ratings, display a fascination with the Royal Family.
On Monday, NBC’s “Today” featured a four-minute report from London-based Molly Hunter obsessing over Prince Harry’s planned visit to his home country to promote the Invictus Games for veterans that he founded. ABC and CBS also offered full reports speculating on Prince Harry’s visit and whether Meghan Markle and their children will also attend.
On June 17, NBC’s Hunter performed a four-minute report (complete with “In Depth” graphic) on the Earth-shaking story that 12-year-old Prince George will attend the Eton College private boys’ school in the fall, just as his father and Prince Harry did. To pad the report, she also touted how Princess Kate did a 24-hour mountain climb for charity after her recovery from cancer.
ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NPR, celebrity.land and MS NOW cannot be bothered for much more substantive British matters, like a recent report on the rape of young girls that came from Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe. The report estimates rape gangs victimized at least 250,000 girls across 149 local British authorities since the 1990s. It says many victims were young teenagers. Some were as young as 4 years old.
The story erupted in America with Elon Musk, as Fox News reported he “reignited international attention on Britain’s grooming gangs scandal this week, amplifying a citizen-funded report that accuses the U.K. government of failing to protect children and teenagers from organized sexual exploitation.” Musk tweeted on June 16: “The politicians who turned a blind eye to the Rape of Britain must go to prison.”
The American networks have been completely obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein files over the last year, constantly exploring how much guilt Donald Trump bears for his long-ended friendship with Epstein. So why can they not spare two or three minutes for this story?
You can guess. The report found nearly 90 percent of the men convicted of rape gang offenses from 1997 to 2018 had “distinctly Muslim names.” Of these offenders, the overwhelming majority were Pakistani Muslim. The report states the obvious: “Political correctness, fear of racism and fear of losing electoral support from certain demographics have taken precedence over the protection of British children.”
Child sexual abuse is considered newsworthy when the allegations are against white men, or against Catholic priests, and the allegations alone are enough to damage reputations of entire groups. The Left will exploit allegations to defeat the conservative Christians who fight against their cultural agenda.
But Muslim immigrants are apparently a protected class. Rupert Lowe can be dismissed as a “far right” leader with the Restore Britain party. One might argue its estimates are overblown — but to do that, you’d have to actually engage with the accusations instead of hiding from them.
It’s not the first report on this scandalous matter. The Jay Report was a 2014 inquiry commissioned by Rotherham — a city of 110,000 — that found “at least 1,400 children were being systematically sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013,” predominantly by Pakistani men. That was also largely ignored by the American media due to its racial and religious overtones.
The abuse investigations continue. In April, the British government launched a new national inquiry into grooming gangs across England and Wales. But our networks think the most newsworthy happenings in England are infotainment, like which school Prince George is attending next year.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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