Troy Carter. Man. Only something epically terrible like the use of rape to score political points could bring me out of my blogging slumber.

So a kid, who happens to have the last name of some famous people, gets accused of rape. He pleads not-guilty.

The Bozeman Daily, “Hey, let’s run his court evidence in a story! That’ll play out great if this goes to trial. I’ve never even seen Making a Murderer. Prosecution ala media? I don’t even know what that is! Oh! Look my Google Alert set to “Koch” just pinged. You know what? Let’s run it again because, his employer is a conservative group. Don’t forget to put it on a ‘blog’ so we don’t confuse it with real reporting.”

Now I know, to a liberal, the Koch brothers are the embodiment of the devil. And they just can’t get enough stories about them. But who cares who his employer is? It literally has nothing to do with the case or even politics in Montana. The only reason is to get search hits on “Koch”.

Or more nefariously, Carter is trying to make some connection?

Why else write these stories? In all five, (FIVE!) Times the Chronicle has written about Even Koch. No one has given a rationale for why it matters that Americans for Prosperity or Turning Point USA are his employers.

Meanwhile a kid— Troy’s political football— has to have his name drug around with this accusation. Just because he has a name that pings well.

This is a real human, who (should) have the presumption of innocence in our jurisprudence. There is a real accusation of rape here, a (potential) victim who shouldn’t have her story brought up repeatedly to the public because Troy Cater has a political axe to grind.

Disgusting.

This kind of journalism plays a crucial role in the decline of our politic culture. It is human beings as political cannon balls. It is shameful.

Some things should be off limits Troy. I hope you live forever.