This American Life: #581: Anatomy of Doubt
February 29, 2016 9:18 AM - Subscribe

This week, a story about doubt: how it germinated, spread, and eventually took hold of an entire community, with terrible consequences. A collaboration with The Marshall Project and ProPublica.
posted by jenfullmoon (12 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
The original Pro Publica piece was discussed on the blue late last year.
posted by gladly at 9:59 AM on February 29, 2016


INFURIATING! Tears of rage on my commute. At least in the audio version of the story, you get the catharsis of hearing those horrible women cry about their part in this inconceivable miscarriage of justice... even if it's just to walk it back a second later with a fresh round of victim-blaming.
posted by Freyja at 12:15 PM on February 29, 2016 [4 favorites]


I like* how at no point any of these people that said "It didn't seem like something a rape victim would do" never thought to research what behaviors are common to rape victims or what to do to help. That seems like something you'd do if someone you cared about had been raped.

* just kidding I hate this forever fuck these people.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:07 PM on February 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


The worst bit of actual tape is the very end in which one of the foster mothers tries to justify her reaction by deflecting blame back on the victim. She was right that what she said sounded terrible, and that's because it was.
posted by lunch at 5:00 PM on February 29, 2016 [5 favorites]


Wow, that was some fucked up shit.

I guess I felt sadness and empathy for the foster mothers, even the one that held on to victim blaming, as much as she was wrong. I felt this twinge of like, wow, we humans can be so wrong.
posted by latkes at 7:57 PM on February 29, 2016


And kudos to the second detective, the one who did not really get her victim and still behaved like a compassionate human being and did her job.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 12:39 AM on March 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


The foster mother who called the police to tell them she doubted Marie had been raped, based on the fact that she's a big Law and Order fan and her story "just didn't sound right" really pissed me off. It was her action that started the whole spiral of doubt, and caused the victim such pain on top of her rape. And to hear her come back at the end of the show to blame the victim for the way she acted was really crappy.
posted by SteveInMaine at 7:45 AM on March 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


Omg, not even finished listening and I am SO ANGRY. Why wouldn't Marie want to go talk to the other police and prove she's innocent? Oh I dunno, maybe because last time you (Shannon) and her other foster mother completely undermined her, the police forced her to say she made it up, she's being charged with a crime and threatened with losing her housing and going to jail, reporters are hounding her, she's been humiliated by the very group that was supposed to help her, and is dealing with horrid internet and in-person comments about how she should go die. Yeah, but I'm sure in her position you would totes go to some new police station and make it start all over again, and relive the whole rape to boot.
posted by j.r at 9:19 AM on March 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


As soon as this episode started I remembered the article from the blue and had to nope out of there so fast. I have listened to it in bits and pieces in the past two days and it still makes me so angry and so sad.
posted by hepta at 10:48 AM on March 1, 2016


This is the first TAL episode in recent memory that left me simultaneously angry and sad. And then to hear that the Project Ladder people issued a statement basically saying that they stood by their actions in this mess. It's unconscionable.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:04 PM on March 1, 2016


And to hear her come back at the end of the show to blame the victim for the way she acted was really crappy.

And I didn't hear any of the people surrounding Marie's case acknowledge that they bore some responsibility for the assault of four other women. Not only did they re-victimize Marie, but they also allowed a serial predator assault more women based only on some bullshit gut feeling.
posted by gladly at 1:54 PM on March 2, 2016


Jesus wept. They just played this episode of TAL on CBC Radio, and I can't remember the last time I was infuriated enough to shout invective at the radio. I hate everyone who failed Marie. They deserve to be pilloried for what they did--the police, the Project Ladder people, her foster mothers. All of them.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:13 AM on March 7, 2016


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