The Naked Man Isn’t the Only One Exposed

On Tuesday, a naked man took off running on the 405, one of Los Angeles’ most congested freeways. Within moments, the internet was abuzz with stories. According to personal accounts, the man was perspiring heavily and reaching out as he ran, suggesting to by-standers (sitting in traffic), that he was under the influence.

Between the 405 and a detour onto Santa Monica Boulevard, the man allegedly attacked a woman, but details of the attack were lost in the frenzy of news reports, which gave preference to amusing celebrity tweets detailing the situation as stars and well-known personages sat in their cars.

The media news blog Fishbowl LA commended LA Weekly‘s Simone Wilson on her fast coverage of the incident, which, as the story continued to develop, eventually included a comment from the woman who was assaulted. In response to the praise from Fishbowl LA, Wilson updated the post about the naked man with the following comment:

Update: Mediabistro approves — for the same reasons they often don’t.

The “often don’t” links to Fishbowl LA’s critique of Wilson’s offensive coverage of the Lara Logan assault in Egypt, in which Wilson repeatedly referred to Logan’s looks and provided descriptions of Logan’s alleged sexual history (suggesting, of course, that she is a man-eater). Wilson apologized at the time, but her smug comment on this post suggests that apology might not have been entirely genuine.

After all, what does taking someone to task for lack of sensitivity have to do with commending them for being capable of tapping into a community to get details on a developing story? The answer eludes us, but one thing is for sure: that naked man on the 405 isn’t the only one exposed this week in Los Angeles.

Image used in header via @DoNbLiNg247.