Athlete’s Rape Case PARODY By @TheOnion In 2011 Is Shockingly Similar To CNN On Steubenville 2013

Over the weekend, CNN came under fire for seeming sympathetic to the Steubenville rapists. Their coverage included statements by legal analysts as well as reporters that expressed concern on the lasting effect the guilty verdict will have on the rapists and the rapists’ families. When reviewing this weekends coverage Kia Makarechi of the Huffington Post put it best,

“the effects of the rape on the victim seemed to be an afterthought.” CNN also, repeatedly, aired footage reveling the victim’s full name (other new outlets like MSNBC,CBS affiliates, and Fox News, continually aired the same footage).

*There is currently a petition on Change.org demanding an apology for the coverage.

No one expected satirical site, The Onion to have produced a video in 2011 witha tone so similar to segments aired a few days ago. Krister Johnson (who worked for Onion’s show SportsDome) posted the video to YouTube Sunday with the note:

I was a staff writer on the Onion’s show “SportsDome” which aired on Comedy Central in 2011. This is one of the stories we did–full credit to David Iscoe for the idea and script. It could have been produced by the CNN team covering the Steubenville rape verdict.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWLJZw9Ws-g?feature=player_embedded