WHIO-TV (CBS Dayton) admits awareness of anti-gun protestor's status as a convicted rapist; Other news outlets remain silent

by Chad D. Baus

On Wednesday, we reported on the fact that Dayton anti-gun protestor Jerome McCorry, who had staged a small protest outside Bill Goodman's Gun & Knife Show over the weekend and received generous media attention, is also a convicted rapist.

Courtesy of DomesticDebacle.com

We also pointed out that, despite this fact, media outlets like the Dayton Daily News and WHIO-TV (CBS Dayton) (and, as it turns out, WKEF (ABC Dayton), not only failed to report the fact that McCorry is a sex offender in their coverage of the protest, but that they have repeatedly failed to do so in past coverage about McCorry.

The article quickly went viral, receiving over 21,000 reads in the first 24 hours, and continues to receive strong traffic. It has also generated follow-up reporting from radio host Dana Loesch and nationally-read bloggers, including PJMedia's Instapundit and Michelle Malkin's Twitchy.com.

Many have begun asking Dayton media outlets why they have given legitimacy to this rapist's calls for potential crime victims to be disarmed, and Dayton blogger "Domestic Debacle" has received a response from WHIO, in which they admit that they were aware of McCorry's status as a sex offender, yet failed to report it.

According to WHIO, they didn't report on McCorry's "controversial" status as a convicted rapist because, these days, his message is one of "community harmony through peace and non-violence." Their desire to "show both sides" apparently now includes showing how a convicted rapist feels about the prospects that potential crime victims might be armed!

As others have observed, the real reason WHIO, Dayton Daily News, and WKEF don't mention McCorry's status as a convicted rapist is because they know his message - one they support - will lack any credibility as soon as their audience learns he is a sex offender. Were McCorry leading a Second Amendment rally, his "controversial" past would no doubt be reported boisterously.

While WHIO has at least responded (lame though their excuses are), neither the Dayton Daily News, or WKEF have answered repeated inquiries as to why they are giving a convicted rapist a "highly visible" platform to argue for the disarmament of potential future crime victims.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.