Another SC Sex Scandal

Horsing Around,

Modern Media Style

A South Carolina man was arrested for being in a stable sexual relationship Monday.

Very stable.

In Sugar’s stable, which is where police say Rodell Vereen, 50, of Longs, SC made hay with the 21-year-old mare. Sugar’s owner, Barbara Kenley, confronted Vereen outside and held him at gunpoint for police.

Vereen, who was on probation for an earlier tryst at the same Lazy B Stables, was charged with buggery.

Sugar is being treated for an incident- related infection, her owner says. Vereen awaits a hearing next week.

All of this from the Myrtle Beach Sun News, a 50,000-plus circulation South Carolina daily newspaper. You can read all the details of the story on their website, here.

You can also read comments from readers wondering whether we really needed to know this stuff. As a recovering journalist, I pretty much see the Sun News doing its job, covering its community. It’s a local story.

Or it was a local story until it was covered by The Associated Press, which reminds us it is “The Essential Global News Network.” The AP had some 570-odd words and a photo on one of its websites for hours.

Which, of course, made the story as un-local as it could possibly be. As the AP explains on another web site, more than half of the world’s people might see an AP story on a given day. A quick look on Google found the story picked up by major web sites all across the U.S., and showing up in Europe and India. A video version was on YouTube. Since web stories can live a very long time, this is probably not the limit, and realistic counts beyond “many, many” are unlikely.

So Sugar has become the most famous South Carolina love object since the last time Governor Mark Sanford visited Argentina.

If the Sun News was just doing its job, what about AP?

Not as easy an answer, and full disclosure, a look at my profile will show I worked there a long time. Still, while the Sun News and the AP both have megaphones, the AP’s is very much bigger.

That used to mean a different frame of judgment on what was worth national exposure and what was worth a chuckle in the bar after work. But if the frame for national editorial judgment has changed, then it has changed. Such things aren’t put to a vote.

But if they were, mine would be Neigh!

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