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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Media Bias Watch

posted by on May 7 at 16:07 PM

Reuters:

Austrian Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered her seven children, said he was no “monster” and he could have killed her and her children had he wanted to, according to his lawyer.

“I am not a monster,” Austrian daily Oesterreich quoted Fritzl as saying in comments relayed by his lawyer Rudolf Mayer. Fritzl also criticized media coverage of his case as “totally one-sided.”

RSS icon Comments

1

Poor, poor baby. He's so hard done by.

Posted by Breklor | May 7, 2008 4:24 PM
2

what a terrible lawyer, there is no way that saying i could have killed them, but instead i imprisoned them for a quarter of a century, helps them in any way.

Posted by vooodooo84 | May 7, 2008 4:31 PM
3

I've been following this story in a kind of numb horror over on Der Spiegel's English site. Of course there is another side to the story. The evil side.

He didn't build an underground prison complex over a period of many years just to kill her. Look at all the effort that went into making her, and then some of her children, captive. Captivity was the thrill. He wouldn't have killed them as long as he was alive. I think the plan was to let them all starve to death after he was dead.

Evil. Sometimes you see things that make you realize you only think you know what the word means.

Posted by Bruce Garrett | May 7, 2008 4:38 PM
4

Had there been an episode of CSI or whatever with this scenario as the premise, I'd have thought it to be preposterous, just ridiculous and impossible. Sigh. Bone chilling. Amazing. Horrifying. This guy is from the extra crispy depth of hell.

How the f' did the wife not know? Who looked after the dungeon when this dude went on his multi-week escapades to Thailand? (and we all know what middle aged men solitarily go to Thailand for)

Just when you think you've seen it all... ugh.

Posted by Phil | May 7, 2008 4:39 PM
5

narcissist don't know when its time to STFU. he'll go to his grave feeling as if he's the injured party.

Posted by max solomon | May 7, 2008 4:45 PM
6

So, when is he accepting his position as Youth Minister for Outreach in the Bush Administration?

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 7, 2008 4:48 PM
7

Yeah, why don't the stupid, fucking hack journalists covering this story have any quotes from child incest and imprisonment advocates?

Posted by David Wright | May 7, 2008 4:56 PM
8

He's right - compared to some other notable Austrians, he's not a monster (Hitler comes to mind immediately). But it's really too bad they can't inflict a punishment on him as horrible as his crime.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | May 7, 2008 4:56 PM
9

max has it right, the guy has narcissistic features. This might be why Fritzl couldn't kill his children, because he needed them to prop up his pathetic sense of self.

Posted by LMSW | May 7, 2008 5:13 PM
10

@7 - man, you made me spit up my latte ... lol

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 7, 2008 5:20 PM
11

How did this one avoid the seemingly inevitable placement in one of the Every Child Deserves posts? Because it had all the ingredients

1. Horrible, unspeakable child abuse
2. Mother and Father (with bonus points for long marriage)
3. So over the top it simply demolishes the argument against not letting gays adopt
4. As generalizable as all the other prior Every Child examples to heterosexual parenting.

I think this was a missed opportunity.

Posted by Bob | May 7, 2008 6:00 PM
13

Should have known. I gotta quit reading only the short posts.

Posted by Bob | May 7, 2008 7:20 PM
14

The Sun carried a more multifaceted story, including creepy pictures of the guy lounging around in a speedo.
The TX mormon nuts were smarter though: build a whole society as a prison and you can rape all the little girls and boys you could possibly want all in the name of Xenu, or whatever it is that mormons avow as a god.

Posted by kinaidos | May 7, 2008 7:27 PM
15

Xenu is Scientology. The Mormon God's name is Jebediah J. Hinckley Jr. He was originally a sheriff in some Missouri town who magically transformed and became a deity after dying in a gunfight with a talking salamander. According to the LDS belief system he now builds planets in his intergalactic godly workshop for good Mormons to inhabit and rule in their heavenly afterlives.

Posted by Bob | May 7, 2008 8:22 PM
16

Yeah, this story's coverage smacks of bias and credulity. Where's the quote from Noah Cross?

Posted by Greg | May 7, 2008 8:51 PM
17

The most prison time he'll do is 15 years in jail. People like this is why humanity has never been able to rid itself of the death penalty. Some asshole like this comes along and all of sudden the idea of charbroiling the prick in the electric chair starts looking....humane.

Posted by Y.F. | May 7, 2008 9:16 PM
18

Sounds like getting murdered would've been a better option.

For some reason, I'm reminded of OJ's quote: "Let's say I committed this crime ... Even if I did do this, it would have been because I loved her very much, right?"

Posted by Mathli69 | May 7, 2008 9:19 PM
19

If he's not a monster, why do I see an entry for him right there in the monster manual? Next thing you know the orcs will be saying the same thing.

Posted by Jim | May 7, 2008 11:41 PM
20

Yeah, where's the objective press. Reporters should be finding someone to tell the other side of the story so it is fair and balanced. There must be an organization somewhere that would defend this guy and save those poor reporters from coming off as advocates against this man. I mean, it's not like he was busted for growing pot or something like that. We need to be fair.

Posted by Postman | May 8, 2008 11:06 AM
21

Pot and Child Abuse are not comparable issues in journalism, and pretending otherwise is a clear way to mark yourself a fool.

Posted by Chris in Tampa | May 8, 2008 8:53 PM

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