Fox News Names Steubenville Rape Victim on TV, Manages to Out-Awful Everyone

CNN may have expressed way too much sympathy for convicted rapists Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond, but Fox News somehow managed to out-awful CNN’s coverage of the Steubenville trial by airing the 16-year-old victim’s name during an American Newsroom broadcast.

Raw Story, which has redacted the girl’s named from the video it posted of the Fox broadcast, reports that, during correspondent Mike Tobin’s report about the guilty verdicts handed down to Mays and Richmond on Sunday, the network cut to footage of Mays using the girl’s first name as he was issuing an in-court apology.

Newsroom host Martha MaCallum asked Tolbin, “We have not known, really, how the victim is doing, Mike. Is there any information on that today?” Tolbin replies with this insipid insight:

Well, a relative tells me that she spends a lot of time in her room. She has been back out playing sports, and through it all — you’ll be surprised to learn — she made the honor roll one more time.

He adds that a represtantive of the girl’s family said that the apologies from Mays and Richmond came too late. At this point, Fox cuts to Mays apology:

I would truly like to apologize to [redacted], her family, my family and the community. No picture [of the rape] should have been sent around, let alone even taken

Please try to be careful when you’re banging your head onto the nearest surface. Raw Story also added this little bit of self-righteousness from Fox — an editor’s note attached to a Sunday AP story, in which Fox makes it quite clear that, although every other media outlet has been publishing the names of the trial’s underage defendants and witnesses, Fox adheres to much higher journalistic standards:

Editors’ Note: The Associated Press named the minors charged due to the fact they have been identified in other news coverage and their names were used in open court. FoxNews.com will not name the defendants.