The Conservative Media

A couple of years ago I wrote about how Ontario allows transgender people to change birth certificate without surgery and I got a lot hateful comments that mentioned an incident at Evergreen College in  Washington. The report said that a trans-women exposed herself in a women’s locker room, I searched the news and the only thing I could find was articles that were spinoff of a very vague article on a Washington state TV station.

I just came across an article by Cristan Williams in the TransAdvocate that researched the incident,

Here’s the nugget of truth to the story: two teens did claim to see Colleen Francis nude while in the Evergreen College sauna.

Here’s what may not have not heard:

•     The sauna area was off limits to the two teens.
•     Unless one specifically tries to see inside the sauna, you can’t view the people inside the sauna.
•     Colleen Francis AND her cisgender female friend were using the sauna together. They were sitting there talking.
•     At no point did Francis act to expose herself to children.
•     At no point was Francis walking around nude in the area where children were.

So, the actual story is that two 17 year olds went into an area they weren’t allowed, attempted to view the people in the sauna and saw Francis. The rest of what you’ve probably heard about this incident is, at this point, an urban myth.

My conversation with Todd Sprague, the Executive Director of College Relations was preceded by an email exchange which immediately brought into question everything I thought I know about this incident. Sprague wrote, “Unfortunately many news reports and online commentaries have chosen to take a sensational, and often inaccurate, path in characterizing what has and has not happened at Evergreen.” He went on to clarify, “On the occasion that sparked the media coverage, the individual in question was using the sauna, an area generally off limits to swim team members.” Sprague also made it clear that this was “one incident that occurred in September 2012, not multiple incidents” and that Francis was “covered up with a towel on the way to the sauna and when leaving it.”

We see this happen over and over, conservative groups use lies and half-truths to create fear. One of the leading conservative organization admitted that they bend the truth, they said…

It is our position that the intrusion of a biological male into a restroom for teenage girls is inherently intimidating and harassing

We see this in Colorado and California and in any state that is trying to pass an anti-discrimination law with gender identity or expression. The news media no long cares about the accuracy of a news article only if it will sell ads; in 2003 Fox News argued in a court case that there is no law that forces news organizations to tell the truth. News organizations have been cutting back on their staff and checking the facts takes time, it means that the reporter cannot be writing up another news story if he/she is still researching the other story. The only thing that is important to the news media is the bottom line.