U Conn Editor Attacked for Writing Assault Story

While i respect your every right to freedom of expression in posting this public blog, as a friend of someone who was falsely accused of rape, i feel obligated to point out the things you said in your article that sounds biased and manipulative by presenting my case from my own biased point of view, even though im trying to be as fair as possible.

first of all, “Of those comments, more than a dozen are flames. Some are critical of Bruen’s journalistic integrity.” – did you actually read those comments?

second, “Several commenters insult Bruen’s appearance, or the clothes she wore in the photograph that accompanied the article.” The shirt she wears in the photograph is described as being “in very poor taste,” and her facial expression as “rediculous” (sic).
– It seems like you purposely tried to manipulate your point to make it sound like people are making fun of her appearance for no reason other than being mean, I read the one comment that had the word “rediculous” (sic) in it, and the commenter who said that her shirt was in poor taste actually supported melissa, and said that her shirt was in poor taste because people can misinterpret it. But please, tell me that looking the actual photograph having an undeniable grin on her face, wearing a shirt that says “some girls are born LUCKY,” is generally considered as “tasteful” by you. I personally believe that killing is wrong, and While the classic sarcastic rapist’s saying is “she totally wanted it.” Wearing a shirt that says “some girls are born Lucky” is like wearing a shirt that says “Shoot me” just after I got shot the previous night.

third: “She describes the attack as having taken place in front of a large number of witnesses, and herself as having run from her attackers barefoot and screaming. She reported the assault to campus police while she was still on the scene.
And yet she is accused by commenters of having made up the incident as a “cry for fame.”
– The way you said it makes it seem clear that you already have a conviction in mind before you wrote this, that what Melissa was right, everybody else was wrong. Does it occur to you that non of the commenters who sympathized with her were actually AT THE SCENE who saw the horrible things happen? Or by some chance and condition that all of the “large number of witnesses” at the scene happen to be cold hearted rape sympathizers who chose not to do a thing? So by implying that just because she had a large number of witnesses, her story was real, is like saying “The person accused of lying said that he was telling the truth, yet everybody said he was lying.” I was not there when it happened, and from what you’ve wrote, it doesnt seem like you were there at the scene either, so it’s safe to say that none of us knows the truth, which leads to my fourth point, which summarizes the tell tale signs that tells me somehow that her story seems manipulative to say the least.

Fourth: If you read the actual orginal article, there are several redflags:

1. When Melissa got “attacked” aka “dry humped,” she thought it was a joke played on her by one of her friends, and didn’t do anything until she turned around and realized that it was not her friend who was dry humping her. So that implied that, to Melissa, one second it was simply a “joke,” and the next second it was a full on “assault,” she THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE!!!! so she must’ve had it bad, which gets better:
2. Assault: IT TOOK THREE PEOPLE TO STOP HER FROM PUNCHING THE “RAPIST.” as soon as she realized that the joke or whatever she called it was done to her by somebody other than her friends, she beat the shit out of the person who was just “dry humping her.” Okay, maybe it was self defense, but i think we can agree that at least physically, getting punched is more damaging than getting “dry humped.” Let’s say he deserved it, because if a guy dry humped another random guy, he might get punched, why not a girl. But he wouldn’t go around self righteously claiming that he got “assaulted.”
3. Sure, there’s that she had her breasts fondled against her will, and that she had bruises on her arm, but SHE WAS DRUNK!! The article started with her saying “I had three beers and two screwdrivers.” Fuck it, not one sympathizer was a witness, along with the fact that alcohol is known to cloud memories, in addition to my forementioned points, I would have to say that her story is sensationalized to say the least, and highly suspicous if you ask for my personal opinion on what I think of it.

I am by NO MEANs supportive of rape or any kind of human rights abuses, granted I admit that it’s not about who was right and who was wrong, we may never find out, but the fact that the story does point to that she overrexagerated the story if it was even credible in the first place at all, and it sickens me just as much to see people give so much into sappy emotional bullcrap that they don’t even care for the truth anymore, you can cry about something fake, or you can cry about something real, like Jasper Howard’s death. There is a time for sentiments, because that’s who we are as humans, but emotions should not be abused for manipulative purposes. So I urge people to not give up your sentiment and empathy, but SMART UP, don’t buy everything you hear just because it SOUNDS touchy. It sickens me.

I appreciate your reply, but may I ask you if you are actually there? Every single comment that wasn’t directly saying “oh Melissa you poor poor courageous thing” were attacked, some of them even threatened, you think a witness would have had the reason to stand out and testify in a forum like that? I go to UConn, I walk by that trail every day, and I can tell you that I have not seen an incident like that, and the majority of commenters that are supportive despite the fact that they were even there in the first place, reflects the culture of uconn that generally condemns any of the guy’s actions, and that’s when none of those commenters were actually there. I’m not saying I think Melissa or the report blatantly pulled the story out of their asses, I am saying, however, that the story MAY have been exagerated, or manipulated, it is a strictly one side story. Having studied and experienced first hand the nature of the media and its potential to misguide the public, I am sickened by how people are willing to blindly accept and buy everything the media feeds them without questioning, and I’m not even talking about something that’s on national news that’s covered by at least one sources, this one had absolutely NO witness, only ONE person interviewed at the scene, and only ONE source of news: The Daily Campus. And that’s when I’m not even going to mention the questionable story and the picture itself. I respect what the Daily Campus is doing, but I hate the way people respond to it without questioning.