Last week, Newsweek received heavy criticism online for publishing a tone-deaf, sympathetic piece about a convicted rapist and murderer, which conspicuously omitted several of the most gruesome details about his crimes. Yesterday, in response to an inquiry by NewsBusters, the magazine made a number of modifications to that piece, including adding several paragraphs which contained those previously-absent details.
Context: The Cheshire Murders
On July 23, 2007, Steven Hayes (the subject of the Newsweek story) and Joshua Komisarjevsky broke into the Cheshire, Connecticut home of Jennifer and William Petit. The accomplices forced Jennifer to withdraw $15,000 from a bank, after which Hayes raped her and strangled her to death. Komisarjevsky, meanwhile, raped their 11-year-old daughter Michaela. The pair then tied her and her 17-year-old sister Hayley to their…
