Would Vick Be "Better Off" as a Rapist?

In a bizarre side story to the Michael Vick affair, Pittsburgh reporter Paul Zeise has apologized, been denounced by his own newspaper, and booted as a regular panelist on a local TV show for saying that Vick would have been "better off raping a woman" than being charged with dogfighting. Here's the quote in full, as uttered on a TV sports talk show:

"It's really a sad day in this country when somehow ... Michael Vick would have been better off raping a woman if you look at the outcry of what happened," Zeise said. "Had he done that, he probably would have been suspended for four games and he'd be back on the field. But because this has become a political issue, all of a sudden the commissioner has lost his stomach for it."

Zeise's employer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, says his "insensitive and offensive" remarks "do not represent the view" of the paper. But I don't get it. What's so "insensitive and offensive" about his comments?

Taken out of context, I can see how someone might read "better off raping a woman" as some sort of suggestion that rape is less immoral than dog-torture. But taken in context, it's obvious Zeise meant exactly the opposite: He's saying that rape is worse than dog-torture, but for some bizarre reason, the NFL -- which has suspended Vick from training camp, and may well suspend him for the entire upcoming season -- is treating dogfighting more seriously. Indeed, it's not just the NFL. The American public seems to be far more outraged by the allegations against Vick than other, far more serious criminal allegations against various other high-profile Americans.

As for the claim that Vick, from a PR standpoint, would have been better off "raping a woman," just look at the Kobe Bryant case from a few years ago. The accusations against the Laker star generated nowhere near the fury or the outrage as those against Vick. While Vick has been suspended from his sport, Kobe would jet to the Colorado courthouse by day, and to the Staples Center and his adoring fans by night.

Or how about the Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis? He was charged with murder, yet the NFL never suspended him.

Zeise is right. It is "really a sad day" when the pro-sports world and the culture at large seem to take animal cruelty more seriously than rape -- or even murder. It's really a sad day when Americans seem to care more about whether Vick tortured dogs than whether the Bush Administration has tortured human beings.

And no, I'm not defending animal cruelty, which I think is sick, deranged, and ought to be punished by law. I just think raping/torturing/killing humans is far worse -- and I can't believe that a reporter would be punished for having the common sense to say as much.