Archive - August 27, 2011

Letter to the Editor Washington Post Published: August 26 written by Matt Losak co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund, a nonprofit that supports a Peace Corps goal to increase Americans’ understanding of the peoples served. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho from 1985 to 1987. The Post’s coverage of the safety and security of Peace Corps volunteers [“Volunteers on a quest for due process,” front page, Aug. 21] fell short of any reasonable standard of journalism. While zeroing in on volunteers who have been victims and the agency’s response, The Post failed to provide context and made the story more salacious than informative. This, as you noted, comes as the Peace Corps celebrates 50 years of Americans volunteering in the huts and villages of half the globe. For example, The Post cited more than 1,000 rapes, attempted rapes and sexual assaults for 2002-10. How many were rapes and how many . . .