With one notable exception, news stories on the death of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, did not fail to mention that he was a convicted sex offender. Only Reuters, the British news wire, failed to mention it. Initially, the American news wire, the Associated Press, failed to mention it as well, but it corrected itself in later editions. Reuters did not.
The media outlets that did the best job on reporting Yarrow’s abuse of a minor were Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
Now some might say that it could be that Reuters has little interest in reporting on sexual abuse. But that is not the case. From May 2021 to December 2024, the British news agency ran nearly 300 stories on the Catholic Church and abuse, even though it was given very little to report on: most offending priests are either dead or have been kicked out of ministry.
Reuters is so anxious to report on priestly misconduct that it can’t even get its facts straight. We had to correct the U.K. journalists in 2018 when it ran a piece on Father Kevin Lonergan of the Diocese of Allentown (PA) who groped a 17-year-old girl and sent nude photos of himself to her. Reuters wrote that “The Allentown Diocese removed Lonergan from his duties after prosecutors alerted them to the case.”
This is false. It was Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert who notified the authorities, right after he learned about it.
What exactly did Yarrow do that Reuters is covering up?
In 1970, a 14-year-old and her 17-year-old sister went to his hotel room after his concert to get his autograph. He came to the door naked and then sexually abused the younger girl in front of her sister. He was sentenced to a one-to-three-year prison sentence, but only served three months.
Yarrow later gave himself a pass, blaming it on the sexual revolution. “In that time, it was common practice, unfortunately—the whole groupie thing.” He also said, “It was an era of real indiscretion and mistakes by categorically male performers.” So child abuse is a “mistake.”
If this isn’t sick enough, consider that the child molester was pardoned in 1981 by none other than President Jimmy Carter, just as he was going out the door. Yarrow was not at all contrite. Indeed, he took the occasion to blast those who nailed him. “With the mean-spiritedness of our time,” he said, “it gets hauled out as if it’s [the sexual abuse of the 14-year-old girl] relevant.” That it might be relevant to his victims does not matter.
After I read that in 2014, I said, “It just makes me want to reach for the vomit bag.”
There’s a lot to chew on with this story, but don’t look for Reuters to educate its readers.
Contact the president and CEO of Thomson Reuters: steve.hasker@thomsonreuters.com
