The media failed in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, over and over again. In the process, they re-victimized Epstein’s victims.
Per @davidfolkenflik: npr.org/2019/08/22/753…
Per @davidfolkenflik: npr.org/2019/08/22/753…
These are three instances that illustrate perfectly why victims don’t come forward.
Victims fear their voices will be erased by those with more power, more money, more influence.
Victims fear their voices will be erased by those with more power, more money, more influence.
David Boies, attorney for several of Epstein’s victims, put it powerfully: 
In 2002, when I was reporting on Epstein for Vanity Fair, I spoke to two sisters, Annie and Maria Farmer, about Epstein’s abuse of Annie when she was just 16. They—and their mother—were on the record.
The Farmer sisters’ comment this week to NPR:
Graydon Carter had previously denied my sources were on the record. This week, his has amended his statement, admitting my three sources were indeed on the record. His new claim is that they didn’t meet the magazine’s “legal threshold.”
My story on Jeffrey Epstein ran in Vanity Fair in March of 2003, but it did not include the Farmers’ accusations of abuse. I wonder how many children might have been spared had the accusations about Epstein been published all those 16 years ago.
David Boies is spot-on when he says the omission “helped create the impression among many of the victims that the media was under Epstein's control, that Epstein had all this power.”
Because of what happened with Vanity Fair, other victims may have been hesitant to speak out.
Because of what happened with Vanity Fair, other victims may have been hesitant to speak out.
We must listen to victims. We must believe women. This is important for all of us, but perhaps for none more so than journalists, who are entrusted with the duty to seek out the truth and share it with the public.
I hope to never again see such a gross miscarriage of justice. And I hope Epstein's victims get some semblance of the justice they so rightly deserve.
