It seems the mass media's Polanski coverage has been rather biased. Most inexcusably for NPR, their news briefs have often mentioned that he claims the incident was consensual, yet don't mention that the victim told a grand jury just the opposite. Since he's described as having pled guilty only to "having sex with a 13-year-old girl," this leaves the listener (including me, until I saw Deb's link about it on facebook) with the false impression that this case arose solely because of the girl's age. Whatever you think about age-of-consent laws, presumably everyone agrees that this makes a big difference.
I posted a comment on their website a few days ago. I also called their Ombudsman's office Thursday, and was informed that they'd received many complaints along the same lines and were looking into it. Good! But I haven't heard any correction yet.
You can contact the NPR Ombudsman at http://www.npr.org/ombudsman or 202-513-3245.
Thanks to my friend Deborah Seeley for bringing this to my attention.
Eric Hamell
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