BillyPenn.com Draws Fire for Sex Assault Article

Here’s how BillyPenn.com covered the A.J. Marsico sex assault allegation:

You know the story: Boy meets girl, boy takes girl back to his office at 10 pm for a job interview (!), girl files rape charges. Or maybe you hadn’t heard about the arrest of Andrew Mascio, a 40-year-old lobbyist for Greenlee Partners. He’s accused of sexually assaulting a 27-year-old woman he met at the posh Union League on August 21; the alleged rape happened that same night, at his office at the Bellevue. Oh, and Mascio’s married to Action News reporter Annie McCormick. Much more to come, but this sounds like the plot of a House of Cards episode…

That treatment was a bit too flip for a number of readers who sharply criticized the startup news site after the post appeared in its morning newsletter.

BillyPenn.com editor Chris Krewson emailed Philly Mag:

We really appreciate the feedback to today’s newsletter — the sixth one we’ve ever sent, actually. So obviously we’re in the early stages of trying to find a voice for it, and, when it launches, the site. One of our goals for this effort is to bring attention to important stories.

“That — adding voice to serious topics — can cause tension. And today some of our users let us know that, right away. That’s why we want, need and will respond to feedback.

He offered a similar comment to the Poynter journalism site, and added: “We crossed that line with some of our readers today.”

BillyPenn.com is being helmed by Jim Brady, known for his work at WashingtonPost.com, TBD.com, and Digital First Media. The site launched its daily newsletter last week, with a full-fledged site expected to launch later this fall.