Sexpidemic!

Just how obsessed is WorldNetDaily about teacher-student sex?

As the climax to the series of articles and links it has promoted over the past several months with headlines like "Again!" a Dec. 14 article by Joe Kovacs is dedicated to enumerating every instance of the practice that it can dig up, with the titillating headline "U.S. teacher sexpidemic spreading across planet."

The article claims that "[t]he seeming U.S. epidemic of cases involving female teachers raping or molesting their students has been "sexported" Down Under, as Australia is experiencing a similar rash of cases," further insisting that there is a "flood of cases" in "the United States and elsewhere." As proof, Kovacs provides a laundry list of such cases in alphabetical order by first name of perpetrator.

Related article on ConWebWatch: WorldNetDaily's School Days

The problem with Kovacs' article is that it really doesn't prove what he alleges. Kovacs offers no perspective and cites no statistics on the number of these cases relative to, well, anything. He also implies that all of these cases are current, but the list includes that are several years old, such as the Pamela Smart case, which took place way back in 1990 and involved a lot more than teacher-student sex (such as murder).

Kovacs' article claimed that the information for his list came from a website called iGossip. The main feature of the site appears to be anonymous confessions of things like teenage crushes and extramarital affairs. One entry ConWebWatch found was of a man writing about his "bi curious" girlfriend who "wanted to try with one of her friends." The man wrote:

Wow what a weekend it ended up a 4 some her friends hubby and myself got to watch and the friends hubby got to have my gf.

My gf thinks it was hot also and can't wait to have another girl to girl.

How did WND -- which is known for such prudities as refusing to link to Salon because it occasionally runs pictures of naked people -- find out about iGossip? And why does it consider iGossip a reliable news source?

Kovacs' story is even accompanied by a poll asking, "What's the solution to the outbreak of teacher-student sex?" (This followed a similar poll taken three weeks earlier.) One of the possible answers: "Homeschool children instead of sending them to these pervert zones."

And that, of course, is the real reason for WND's obsession with this purported "sexpidemic." As ConWebWatch has detailed, WND editorial policy is to disparage public education and promote homeschooling at every opportunity. And indeed, Kovacs' article has the same three links at the end bashing public education and pimping homeschooling that WND sticks on other, similar articles.

One interesting side note: as the Pandagon weblog pointed out, Kovacs' list includes only female teachers who have engaged in sex with students; there are no male teachers listed. Indeed, WND seems a bit blase about older men with teenage girls; the story about a 22-year-old Nebraska man who impregnated, then married, a 13-year-old girl, rating only a short writeup and a related poll back in July, which made sure to quote the man's attorney as saying, "What benefit is there to anybody in the prosecution of this young man?" -- favorable coverage that Kovacs did not provide to any of his female subjects. WND has provide no further original coverage of the case since, even though the man pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault of a child on Dec. 13 in connection with the case. What does it say about WND that it has lavished such disproportionate attention on what is presumably only one half of a problem? After all, WND's lopsided coverage doesn't mean there isn't a "sexpidemic" of male teachers having sex with their students.

This is just the most recent example of WND's dysfunctional relationship with sex. It has also obsessed about and denounced overly sexy ads, making sure to show WND readers just how sexy the ads that offend it are.

But the folks at WND aren't the only ones obsessed with sex. Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media has been thinking about it too.

In the "Cliff's Notes" section of the Dec. 6 "AIM Report," Kincaid wrote of his annoyance that former President Clinton, "who committed adultery with a White House intern and lied about it under oath is being rehabilitated by CBS News into a spokesman for good eating," further disappointed that a CBS segment on Clinton's eating habits did not discuss "his sexual addiction or serial womanizing." Kincaid added:

But let's face it: his sexual appetite has been as serious a problem as what he eats. And it's in the sexual arena that he could really perform a public service. He should step forward and campaign against sexual diseases.

Kincaid expanded this item into a full-fledged column on Dec. 13, in which he further elaborated:

In fact, Clinton might be valuable in warning young people not to engage in oral sex. Clinton, who exploited Monica Lewinski [sic] for sexual gratification, could cite a Swedish study finding that some mouth cancers are caused by a virus contracted during oral sex.

[...]

It is a distinct possibility, of course, that more young people are engaging in oral sex and getting mouth cancer because of the example set by former junk food junkie Bill Clinton.

Then, the next day, Kincaid turned his attention to the same-sex side of the ledger in a Dec. 14 column, in which he suggested that homosexuality be treated the same way as smoking -- as a public health hazard.

"Have you noticed that many news organizations, in honor of former ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have embarked on a quit smoking campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle?" Kincaid wrote.

Noting that "Life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases among homosexuals are on the increase," Kincaid adds: "It appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as smoking."

Kincaid has had a bit of an obsession with homosexuality for a while now. As ConWebWatch noted, he was particularly unnerved by Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow, describing her as "a lesbian with hair so short that she looks like a man." He also defended author Ed Klein against criticism of Klein's efforts in his discredited anti-Hillary Clinton book trying to link Hillary with lesbianism.

So we have a website freakishly and disproportionately bothered by female (but not male) teachers who have sex with students and a columnist who thinks that public service announcements can cure homosexuality. If you're looking for a fact-based discussion about sex, don't expect to find it at WorldNetDaily or Accuracy in Media.