by Peter Delvecchio

A preliminary hearing in the Lawrence King murder case is set for Sept. 23 in Ventura Superior Court to assess whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial. Fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney has been charged as an adult with premeditated murder with a special hate crime allegation for allegedly shooting the 15-year-old, openly gay King in the head in an Oxnard classroom last February.

While the LGBT press has been following the case closely, the most extensive mainstream media coverage to date was a July 28 Newsweek magazine cover story, “Young, Gay and Murdered,” that ignited a firestorm in the LGBT community. Many felt the article held King responsible for his own murder.

Openly lesbian California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) thought the Newsweek piece “leaned toward blaming Larry for his own death.” Kuehl, a longtime advocate for the rights of LGBT students, had no involvement in the story, but the murder occurred in her district.

One line in the article—“Larry King was ... a troubled child who flaunted his sexuality and wielded it like a weapon—it was often his first line of defense”—drew particularly heavy fire from LGBT experts cited in the Newsweek story.

“No reputable outlet uses the term ‘flaunting his sexuality,’” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

Caitlin Ryan, a San Francisco State University clinical social worker, director of the Family Acceptance Project and co-author of Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling, said she was “distressed” by the line.

The article’s author, Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh, denied “blaming the victim” in an e-mail interview. He pointed out that the “flaunting” sentence ends with, “It was often his first line of defense,” adding, “That idea is key. Larry was using his sexuality to defend himself from other boys at school.”

Kuehl responded, “However you parse it, I don’t think the writer is being totally up front with us.”

GLSEN’s Media Relations Manager Daryl Presgraves accused Newsweek of detailing King’s alleged harassment of McInerney but “never mention[ing] that Brandon McInerney had been bullying Lawrence King.”

Setoodeh countered: “If you were to spend a lot of time with the students at E.O. Green [Junior High School], they would tell you that they hardly saw Larry and Brandon together.”

Setoodeh said his original story was to be about the difficulties of teenagers coming out in middle school. Then King was murdered. “I went to Oxnard to cover what had happened, and I soon saw how complicated his story was. We decided to focus on Larry, knowing that his story would have broader implications about the challenges and difficulties any student faces who is openly gay in middle school.”

Newsweek’s LGBT sources, however, believe the article shortchanged the “broader implications,” even though they had provided relevant data.

Ryan said she spoke with Setoodeh about “the earlier ages of coming out, the developmental issues for LGBT young people, the need for support” and aspects of her work with families with LGBT adolescents. GLSEN referred Setoodeh to its survey, “From Teasing to Torment,” with specific page references, Presgraves said.

Communications expert Cathy Renna said she “worked very closely” with Setoodeh “in providing him some sources, particularly around current research relating to the average age of coming out being lower and lower.”

The article, though, includes scant information regarding the plight of LGBT kids in schools. “That’s the part that was really missing,” said Renna.

“There was a failure to put this in the larger context, which we supplied in detail,” Jennings said.

“A writer couldn’t put in all of the contextual information,” Ryan said. “But I was really surprised that there were no quotes from LGBT organizations, like GLSEN, that deal with school victimization directly.”

Setoodeh responded, “We included the number of gay-straight alliances in middle schools and high schools, as well as quotes from teenagers who came out of the closet in middle school. GLSEN’s bullying numbers were several years old, I think.” Presgraves said GLSEN’s 2005 statistics are still valid.

With respect to the lack of quotes from LGBT leaders, Setoodeh said, “There was no reason to include their quotes,” because the article was about King and McInerney.

Renna suggests the Newsweek article might reflect how “the realities of modern corporate journalism ... can really foster less accurate coverage, more sensationalized coverage and the kind of coverage that I don’t think is as helpful in doing the job of journalism.” Setoodeh points to “the deep context and nuance we brought to this story.”

McInerney’s lawyer, Public Defender William Quest, concurred, saying in a July telephone interview he thought Newsweek “definitely ... did a good job in getting what we believe was going on at the school.”

Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox, who is prosecuting the case, faulted Newsweek for numerous alleged factual inaccuracies. Setoodeh “ran a bunch of facts that appear in that article by me,” Fox said, “and I told him, ‘I can’t confirm any of that stuff because that is not the information that we’re getting.’” Fox declined to identify the specific alleged inaccuracies.

Hueneme School District Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg agreed with Fox, saying, “I think she’s right on,” though he thought “the reporter attempted to be fair.”

Citing a “five-month investigation,” Setoodeh responded, “I think it’s possible that we had more information than [Fox] … Every single fact that was reported in the story was checked extensively.”

Fox also scolded Newsweek for relying on anonymous sources. “Based on the information that we have, and the interviews that we have done [of] people who are actually going to stick their neck out and testify,” she said, “a lot of that stuff never happened.”

Setoodeh responded, “We weighed the use of anonymous sources very carefully and whenever possible tried to corroborate through multiple sources what they told us before using the information.”

The actual facts of the case will start to emerge at the preliminary hearing.