The news has been buzzing over the last
few days about Minnesota Viking's star Adrian Peterson's 2-year-old son's
death. The boy passed on Friday after his mother's boyfriend reportedly
assaulted him. Originally reported as a medical emergency, the Sioux Falls
Police Department quickly determined that the boy's injuries were not
accidental.
Police arrested Joseph Robert Patterson, 27, who was initially charged with aggravated assault and aggravated assault on an infant. His bond was set at $750,000 in cash before the boy's death.
According to several sources, including USA Today Sports, Patterson has a prior domestic abuse record with a different woman and child.
AP made statements Friday that the boy was his son, but not Adrian Peterson Jr., a rumor that began circulating. AP told the press he would play in Sunday's game against the Panthers. According to CNN, he also adamantly requested that his privacy be respected.
The child victim, originally thought to be AP Jr., has been identified as the "fruit of a casual relationship" previously unknown to the press. However, "memorial" photos of AP Jr. quickly spread over social media. According to several sources and news blogs, the child's existence was only recently brought to AP's attention. TMZ reported that AP met the child for the first time while the boy was on life support.
Black Sports Online, among many other news sites attempted to clear up the confusion, as well as AP himself via his social media accounts.
Police arrested Joseph Robert Patterson, 27, who was initially charged with aggravated assault and aggravated assault on an infant. His bond was set at $750,000 in cash before the boy's death.
According to several sources, including USA Today Sports, Patterson has a prior domestic abuse record with a different woman and child.
AP made statements Friday that the boy was his son, but not Adrian Peterson Jr., a rumor that began circulating. AP told the press he would play in Sunday's game against the Panthers. According to CNN, he also adamantly requested that his privacy be respected.
The child victim, originally thought to be AP Jr., has been identified as the "fruit of a casual relationship" previously unknown to the press. However, "memorial" photos of AP Jr. quickly spread over social media. According to several sources and news blogs, the child's existence was only recently brought to AP's attention. TMZ reported that AP met the child for the first time while the boy was on life support.
Black Sports Online, among many other news sites attempted to clear up the confusion, as well as AP himself via his social media accounts.
Aside from the fact that a child was
killed in this event, which is incredibly tragic, I feel that one of the most unfortunate aspects is the
complete invasion of privacy from the public via their social media. People
mindlessly tweeted photos of AP Jr., a child that is alive and well. Several
photos of him and his football star father were tweeted and posted, featuring
the child with angel wings and “RIP” messages. Users did not take into
consideration the facts of this story—did not even bother to fact-check at all,
and as a result, falsely posted information about this little boy.
It just goes to show that people should
CHECK THEIR SOURCES. While the confusion between the boys is understandable as
they are very close in age, several news sites had already reported very
quickly on Friday that AP Jr. was not the victim of Patterson’s abuse.
It was very sad to hear the story about Adrian Peterson's son. As i was looking through different social media sites, i noticed that many people were posting pictures of Adrian and his son. Everyone thought that i was his son that had died, but that was not true. This goes to show that you can never believe anything that you see on those sites. It is still a very sad moment, and it is great that Adrian still played on Sunday, even though he had just lost his son.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a sad story and we all hate to hear stories like this. I was never on the social media sites when this event happened, so I never saw any of the photos or comments. But from the statements you have made in your blog, it sounds like it was a confusing matter if you did not get your facts straight. I often see this sometimes with my friends posts. They tend to post things they hear right away, instead of waiting and getting all the facts straight before sharing it to the world. Social media platforms are great for sharing news and media, but on the other hand it can have a negative effect when the statements are not true. This is was a sad and tragic event that should have never happened.
ReplyDeleteIt is always sad to hear a story like this. I actually did see on many social media sites that the information was wrong and posting pictures of Adrian and his son. I see this happening many times on social media sites when the information is wrong or is just a complete lie. Sometimes I saw some of my friends on Facebook posted about how Johnny Depp or Adam Sandler died, when they didn't. I wonder how people see false information like this and all I can think of is that the sources that they get it from are just probably trying to create attention. People need to pick and choose reliable sources to get the right facts.
ReplyDeleteSocial media is actually the only way I have heard of this story so far. I have yet to go to an actual news site and check out the story and maybe it is a good thing that I have not done so because apparently their information is incorrect. I find it extremely discouraging when professional journalists are not checking their sources before doing a story on something that could be detrimental to a person's life and privacy. I am glad you covered this because unfortunately I had yet to really do my research on the story.
ReplyDeleteThe first of me hearing about AP's son was when I was on Twitter. I first heard that AP's son was in critical condition and that his son's mother's boyfriend was the cause of his hospitalization. I saw this and just thought how crazy that word gets out and I didn't know what to think because I hadn't heard anything on the news. I agree with you when you said that people need to check their sources before posting information about anything. Although, this was a very sad story, it was a great example of how people need to check their sources when making tweets, status updates, etc.
ReplyDelete