On January 22, KSHB-TV posted a story headlined, “Gay couple targeted with hate crime at south Kansas City home.” The following day, Fox4KC followed with an elaboration on that same story. And yet a search of the Kansas City Star website shows not a single word on the incident.
According to the victim, he heard noises in his backyard shortly before midnight on Friday, January 20, Inauguration Day. When he opened the back door, he felt “something really cold against my head.” Just feet away, another man was spray painting his car with the homophobic slur “fag.” The spray-painter then then ran up to the victim and assaulted him. Apparently, the assailants told the man to “look away,” and he complied. He was unable to identify the men.
This story was picked up by publications across the country, but if the Star wrote about this incident, the story has been removed. This is exactly the kind of story that the Star loves to publish. Its failure to follow up on this story leads to one of two conclusions: either the Star has suddenly grown indifferent to the plight of homosexuals, or its editor think the incident a hoax.
In the way of background, the couple first posted its version of this incident on its Facebook page early morning Saturday morning immediately after it presumably took place. Only the victim was home at the time of the incident.
Later that same Saturday the couple started a fund raising campaign for security equipment on gofundme, including video surveillance outside of the home, updated locks with higher grade equipment on all doors, motion activated floodlights, and a subscription to an alarm company. “We were targeted by what appears to be someone in our neighborhood, and we do not know if the perpetrators will come back,” the couple claimed. “We refuse to bend to this kind of bullying and violence. We will not be afraid in our own home.”
By January 23, with more than a little help from KSHB, the couple had reached its goal. “We haven’t been able to work these past few days, so the extra that has been donated will definitely go a long way,” reads the Facebook page. “We are floored by the amount of love and compassion that has been shown by our community,” writes the couple.
One would think that this heartwarming angle alone would attract the Star, but so far nothing, not a word. If the Star thinks the story a hoax, it has an obligation to its readers to expose it. If the Star thinks the story real, it has an obligation to publish it.