We do still have libel laws, don't we?

This morning's Herald has a (300-point) headline reading BEATEN TO DEATH along with a picture of Dontell Jeffers, the little boy who recently died while in foster care.

I didn't get the, uh, opportunity to read the actual story, but I see in 3 other accounts of the story that all that is known now is that the boy died shortly after going into cardiac arrest while in the hospital and that relatives had raised questions of physical abuse after visiting with the child recently. No one's been charged with anything, no cause of death has been determined, and there's no mention of any other findings during the child's hospitalization.

Talk about jumping to conclusions.

If the cause of death is determined to be anything other than a direct result of blunt trauma intentionally inflicted by another person, I'll be the first one to start a fund to sue the Herald's ass off for libel.

Oh, and it's especially infuriating that Mitt Romney is commenting on the "enormous failure" of the foster care system. After he's made huge cuts in foster care, group care, DSS, MassHealth and therapeutic schools. And has publicly stated that it's wrong to give needy children families in GLBTQ homes.