Media experts, HIV activists slam press for its role in ‘Jackie’ YouTube hoax

Activists and media experts are strongly criticizing several media outlets for their reporting on the case of Jackie, the perpetrator of a YouTube hoax.

‘Jackie’ became a media sensation last Thursday when Mediatakeout.com published a video of her claiming to not only be HIV-positive but to have infected 500 people with the virus that causes AIDS. ‘Jackie’ also claimed to have been infected with syphilis, a bacterial infection.

Detroit Police reported Friday that they had identified ‘Jackie,’ and the Detroit News reports she is in fact a 23-year-old HIV-negative college student in southeast Michigan. The woman was identified as Jackie Braxton, and she claimed to have created the video to bring attention to HIV issues, as well as draw attention to a pornographic website she and her husband run.

But that is not slowing activists and media experts from calling the coverage of the viral video troubling.

Bonnie Bucqueroux, retired director of the Victims and the Media Program at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, raised questions about the media’s portrayal of the story in an interview with Michigan Messenger.

“The story of the young woman who committed the YouTube hoax about intentionally infecting people with HIV raises serious concerns about the mainstream media. Their role as gatekeeper, vetting the facts before publication, is called into serious question in this case,” she wrote in an instant message interview. “Where are the comments from AIDS experts? Why is this published before we know the facts? There were plenty of red flags in the video that should have raised questions about its authenticity.”

Media outlets including the Detroit News, MLive.com, and UPI all published stories on the subject without consulting with experts in HIV transmission.

Had they done so, HIV activists say, the panic the stories have induced — UPI reports the Detroit Police department was receiving calls from around the country from people who thought they might have been infected by the woman — could have been avoided because several aspects of the story told on the video would have raised red flags to those experts.

For example, in the Youtube video ‘Jackie’ claimed to have infected 500 people because she slept with them. Activists point out HIV is a difficult virus to transmit, and one sexual episode with an HIV positive person is unlikely to cause an infection.

In a press release criticizing the coverage, the Michigan Positive Action Coalition (MI POZ) said:

In her video, she claimed to have transmitted HIV to every one of her several hundred sex partners, while the known risk of female-to-male transmission in high income countries is 0.04% per encounter.

Given that rate of female-to-male transmission, the woman would have had to sleep with hundreds of thousands of partners to infect 500 of them.

Don Sousie of MI POZ criticizes the media’s role in spreading stigma: “Jackie’s claims should have been immediately suspect to anyone with even a passing knowledge of HIV and syphilis. Instead, her outrageous claims were taken at face value, with no critical questioning at all. This kind of media coverage is dangerous because it paints those of us with HIV as monsters bent on spreading the virus, without care or concern for others.”

“This is yet another example of fear mongering surrounding HIV,” said Sousie.

Ellen Roelofs of MI POZ added, “While local news outlets were quick to sensationalize the poorly fabricated hoax, they failed to address the grossly inaccurate and offensive representations of people living with HIV contained in the video.”

Another example: In the video ‘Jackie’ claims to be suffering problems in her right eye as a result of a syphilis infection. Syphilis is a bacterial infection spread through sexual activity, which has three stages of disease progression. The bacteria does not cause nerve issues until the third stage of infection. That stage is not considered infectious by public health officials.

“Had the reporters on this case taken ten seconds to evaluate the outrageous claims being posited by ‘Jackie,’ they would have known this was a hoax,” said Mark Peterson, also of MI POZ. “Instead, they went for the scare factor. No reporter, and no reports by the media, explored the statements with critical analysis by public health officials. We believe that had the reporters done so, the story would have been far more factual, and much shorter on the sensationalism.”

The initial stories also failed to accurately report the law in Michigan regarding HIV transmission.

Michigan law is mute on the issue of spreading the virus, but it does make it a felony for an HIV-positive person to engage in any sexual penetration, “however slight,” with out first disclosing that she or he is infected with HIV.

Michigan Messenger did a report on the law in May of 2009.

MLive.com, UPI and the Detroit News included the following line:

It is a felony in Michigan and other states to knowingly transmit HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Late Friday evening the Detroit News changed the line to read:

Failure to disclose to a sex partner that you have HIV/AIDS is a felony.

There was no editorial note from the newspaper in the online edition noting the correction or the previously incorrect information the news outlet had published.

Only after the video had been proven a hoax did media outlets, including the Detroit Free Press and the Associated Press, write pieces citing public health authorities.

Activists also used their press release to question the lack of initial response to the hoax from public health groups and agencies:

“We spend a lot of money on HIV prevention programs, and this kind of in-your-face stigma helps to fuel the continued spread of the virus in our community. Where are our community-based organizations and health services on this issue? These are the people empowered to publicly address the HIV epidemic and we need them to step up to the plate to address this kind of dangerous and damaging misinformation.”