On Wednesday October 15th I sat in a Syracuse meeting room, and I was among many students, journalists, and interested community members. The topic of the day was how two investigative journalists— Mike Kessler and Mark Fainaru-Wada— broke the news of Conrad Mainwaring, a serial child molester, who had sexually assaulted a known 41 boys. These boys are grown men now and range from the ages 22-59.
( Mark Fainaru-Wada ) (Mike Kessler)
As Kessler and Wada mentioned during the event; as exhausting as the investigation was with tracking down sources and interviewing past victims, that pales in comparison to what the victim’s experienced. I was in awe during the event. I was mortified that Mainwaring got away with his actions for decades upon decades and to this day will not suffer the consequences he should due to the statute of limitations. I was also heartbroken but excited for the victims that had the bravery to tell their accounts and some, even confronted Mainwaring after years of hiding the abuse.
Although the #MeToo and Time's Up movement is associated closely to empowering women who have experienced sexual abuse, this case is directly related to the movement as well. Although Kessler and Wada didn’t realize they were part of the movement, I have no doubt their actions will have ripple effects for the men who survived Mainwaring’s abuse.
The journalist duo, Kessler and Wada, did what every person should do when sexual assault or abuse is mentioned—they recognized the importance of the situation. Although both journalists are bombarded with story pitches every day, when Kessler heard his first tip about Mainwaring, he agreed to listen and investigate the story. He stated during the event that “you always say yes because you don’t know what will pan out.”
The second most important thing that the journalists did was believe the victims. They both agreed that the testimonies were compelling and by just meeting one of the victims on Skype, they knew the importance of the venture they were on. The journalist duo never doubted the victims or their testimonies, but they did have doubts about if anyone would care and take time to read the article they were producing.
Although every man’s testimony was compelling and creating a trail for Kessler and Wada to follow, they knew that they had to act sensitively and respect every victim’s privacy. They knew it would be immoral to cold call people for their testimonies, no matter how much they wanted to hear accounts about Mainwaring. Kessler and Wada also agreed that people who “waffled,” which refers to people who changed their mind about allowing their interview or identity to be released in their article, had every right to change their mind and remain anonymous.
Listening was a critical skill in this endeavor for both Kessler and Wada. Listening and patience are always necessary when communicating with someone who has experienced abuse. Kessler recounted a time that he was interviewing a man and for 2 hours, they didn’t even address the sexual assault. Sometimes when you talk to someone going through a sensitive situation you don’t even talk about “the thing” you’re there to talk about Kessler stated.
Above all else, humanizing each victim is a necessity. All 41 men that Mainwaring groomed, manipulated, and sexually assaulted are induvial humans that had parents, grew up to begin their own families, and some lived a life hiding a painful secret. “His victims were really smart and ambitious people. In fact, their ambition was their weak spot” Kessler accounts. Most of the men that Mainwaring abused were young athletes with the goal of joining collegiate and Olympic teams. They were hungry for success and Mainwaring took advantage of that to normalize the abuse.
The fact that the two journalists exposing Mainwaring were both males may have an impact on the weight of the story. Both journalists recognized that if this story was released by female journalists it may have been regarded with more hostility. The same applies if Mainwaring was an NFL or NBA coach compared to the running coach he was. None the less, the role of investigative journalism is priceless. They are whistleblowers for those whose voices have been silenced by others. Journalists, males, females, whoever you are, we must all take time to reflect on how we can support sexual assault victims and give them a voice. Time's up.
An interview with Carlo DiGiammarino, a freshman in Newhouse's News Paper and Online Journalism program.
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