LA Weekly Reporter’s Tone Deaf Remarks on Lara Logan Assault

Yesterday came the heartbreaking news that CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted while reporting from Tahrir Square in Egypt. In a post on the crime for the LA Weekly‘s Informer blog, Simone Wilson angered many with her commentary. She remarked repeatedly on Logan’s good looks and made note of her controversial sexual history. Worst of all perhaps was Wilson’s description of the attack:

Logan was in Tahrir Square with her “60 Minutes” news team when Mubarak’s announcement broke. Then, in a rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protesters apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter.

That’s a pretty offensive characterization of both sexual assault and the Egyptian protesters.

Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com took Wilson to task for her blog post, describing it as:

a hideously twisted bit of commentary on an assault victim, one that repulsively mingles the woman’s attractiveness and sexual history with a violent crime, and ends with the brutally off-key observation that “nobody’s invincible.”

At last count, Wilson’s blog post had 500 comments, many expressing dismay at the tone of the article. A few quick screenshots of the outrage:

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