We seem to
be at the height of kids-in-cars hysteria, with emergency
personnel breaking
car windows to save dolls and vigilantes
filming mothers they have deemed monsters for letting kids
wait out short errands in cars. Recently, another
such video aired on KHOU in Houston. The network’s
storyline: A mom by the name of Araceli Cisneros left her
kids in the car to wither and perhaps die while she gallivanted off
to get a haircut. An eyewitness filmed the negligence on a cell
phone camera.
A few hours later, the station changed its report. In actuality,
the mom had accidentally locked her kids in the car with her keys
and had been frantically trying to get them out,
not getting her hair done.
The mommy wasn’t evil. In fact, she was “frantically calling for
help,” the entire time, according to the Houston
Chronicle.
Now Cisneros is suing the TV station for $200,000 for not
checking its facts. She fears for her family after the story went
viral: nationally syndicated TV personality Nancy Grace even picked
it up, calling Cisneros an unfit mother. As reports
the Houston
Chronicle:
“As a result of KHOU’s objectively false news report, Cisneros
feared that she would be subject to prosecution for leaving her
children in a locked car,” the suit alleges. “Based on the public’s
response to the article … Cisneros also feared for the safety of
herself and her family.”An editor’s note since added to the story on the KHOU website
says, “The witness who shot the cell phone video was mistaken when
he thought the mother left the children in the car while she got a
haircut. We have removed that part of the story.”The note goes on to confirm Cisneros’ story. “The mother
accidentally locked her keys in the car and recruited other
witnesses to help smash the window,” the editor’s note says.
In a world where everyone—bystanders, the media, and the people
watching the media—are all eager to leap to the worst-case
scenario, it’s not surprising that the story aired as another tale
of a mother who put her own needs first and ignored her kids.
There’s nothing America loves more at this moment than
mama-shaming, which I declare my new word of the month. I’m glad
this mama is shaming the haters back.
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