It's Time for Justice: Drop the charges vs. Duke lacrosse players

The Mercury News ^ | October 16, 2006 | Jason Whitlock

[zaxxon]

The charges against the Duke lacrosse players should be dropped immediately, and the people demanding the dismissal the loudest and most forcefully should be the very people who have made a living allegedly fighting against racial injustice.

I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be in Durham, N.C., today, promising civil disobedience until the charges are dropped and prosecutor Mike Nifong resigns.

Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" should never be mistaken for Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court. Bradley is just a TV reporter and "60 Minutes" is just a TV show, but you couldn't help but be moved by the story they aired Sunday night about the Duke lacrosse rape allegations.

The three accused players gave their first interviews, and two of them claimed they had airtight, documented alibis. The accuser's one-night sidekick, Kim Roberts, seems to have settled on telling the truth rather than trying to spin the story for fame or money. She contradicted several of the statements the accuser gave to police.

[NeonKnight]

60 Minutes didn't seem to have any problem talking to the defense. What is wrong with the local rags? Have they even tried?

I am so frustrated with the N&O I can't even sleep sometimes.

[Locomotive Breath]

I have no info on that. Sorry.

[Locomotive Breath]

It was a smallish older black woman in a big hat. I don't know Victoria (Tory?) Peterson to look at her so I don't know if that's who it was. She went bat sh1t talking about she was scared of the Duke students and all the problems they were causing for black people and then went off on a long incomprehensible tirade that somehow ended up in a rant about black people with hepatitis in prison as she stormed out of the room.

[Locomotive Breath]

Well not in so many words. They were asked why they reported with such certainty that a rape had occurred. We trusted the DA because he was so certain and definite was the answer.

[Locomotive Breath]

They were being criticized for putting the players "mug shots" in the paper in a format guaranteed to have the readers assume they were guilty when someone called out words to the effect of "When will we see Nifong's mug shot in the paper?" This was met with general approval by those in attendance.

[Locomotive Breath]

This was in regard to the early reporting before the defense got in gear. It was specifically noted that the reporting was so one sided early on because the trustworthy DA was out reporting as fact far and wide that a rape had occurred and there was no countervailing voice. Apparently they were OK with that.

[Locomotive Breath]

Participants were:

Bob Ashley ’70 - Editor of Durham Herald Sun
Jay Bilas ’86 - Sports Analyst with ESPN
James Coleman, Jr. - Duke Law Professor
Seeyward Darby ’07 – 2005-2006 Editor in Chief of Chronicle
John Drescher A.M. ’88 – Managing Editor N&O
Jerrold Footlick – Counselor on Media and Public Affairs (formerly two decades at Newsweek)
Susannah Meadows ’95 – Newsweek senior writer
Frank Stasio – moderator, host The State of Things on WUNC formerly of NPR’s all things considered

[Locomotive Breath]

Format was that Stasio asked several questions and then invited comment. I didn't try to take notes.

[NeonKnight]

Good group actually. I trust Jay Bilas, and Prof Coleman needs a national audience. Prof Coleman seems to understand what is wrong with the black community. Most of America wants them to be a part of America. Too many talking heads are trying to drive them away.

A couple of key things the African American leadership is going to have to keep in mind. It is not "us" vs "you", it is all of us working to make this a better country. We want the black community to contribute. We need them to contribute.

This is not 1900. We are all equal now. It is not the color of your skin that offends me, it is the way you approach me.

[Ken H]

KC weighs in on an article in the Chronicle by a Duke student:

http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2006/10/horrifying.html

Also, it looks like Cosmopolitan magazine has done a hit piece on the lax players. An anonymous poster at Durham in Wonderland wrote:

Glad others were horrified by this [Chronicle] article. When my daughter phoned today, I asked her if she had read the piece. She was furious about it (as well as the op/ed about Duke athletes). She added that her friend had just shown her an article in the latest Cosmopolitan magazine titled "The Scary Truth About Guys in Groups".

The headline reads "Otherwise decent men can morph into monsters when spurred on by a testosterone-fueled peer group. Learn what drives this dangerous pack behavior and how you can avoid falling victim to it." There is a picture of David Evans with a big headline "Third Player Indicted in Duke Rape Case."

The first three paragraphs of the story are exclusively devoted to the Duke case. Only two sentences express any doubts about the case. It then goes on to mention the Fresno case, as well as one in New York. (I picked up the issue on my way home.) The rest of the article is about "psychology of the pack", "pack and prey", "the boys club culture", and "twisted group dynamics".

[pray4liberty]

Nifong is a monster in the system. He has some axe to grind or an agenda and his 'victim' is just his tool.

May the accused be found innocent!

[NeonKnight]

Nifong is a classic sociopath. A great guy. His friends all probably love him.

But he cares nothing about anyone or anything that cannot contribute to his happiness.

[pray4liberty]

Or his agenda either.

[Locomotive Breath]

Room was full. Here are some things in random order---

Footlick mentioned just how bad Brodhead had looked by not finding out himself what was going on but relying on news reports, etc..

Bilas remarked how important the blogs had been in influencing the story. He gets it. Also remarked that how ridiculous he found it to be when he was on a show with some woman from Detroit who was commenting on the state of race relations in Durham. Bilas is an impressive guy.

Drescher replied with the standard newsie canard that the blogs aren't vetted for accuracy. (Ya'll done laughing yet? - OK then - let's continue.)

Drescher opened his comments by noting that "the N&O broke the story first" (I think it was the Chronicle actually but Darby didn't call him on it) and that how in their very first article which was triggered by the mass DNA test they noted how unusual that was and tried to give the appearance that they were wise to Nifong from the start. He also said that the N&O hadn't really played up the race/money/gender angle much (barf barf gag gag). Was challenged on why N&O had portrayed players as not cooperating with police (e.g. not reporting team captains going down to police station w/o lawyers) and said police and Nifong hadn't told them that but was putting up the idea that the players weren't cooperating. Wanted to be judged on the fact that they had gotten the story right in their later reporting (as if the earlier damaging hysterical reports could now be overlooked.)

Ashley remarked that H-S was embarrassed by getting scooped by N&O and that was trying to play catchup. Mentioned competition between news outlets. Implication was that had driven story quickly and in the wrong direction.

Darby recalled fielding phone calls from NYT asking what was going on (normally the reverse is true) and just what a rumor mill the campus was at that time and how hard it was to track down any facts.

Meadows says she regretted that the three mug shots appeared on the cover of Newsweek and felt that the article for which she was responsible was fair.

Coleman didn't have much to say except toward the end when Drescher was trying to say that early coverage was so one sided because the laxers wouldn't talk to the N&O on the advice of their lawyers and Coleman reminded him that Nifong had said "why would anyone who's not guilty need a lawyer"

One questioner asked (voice breaking) why the panel considered this to be some kind of light-hearted exercise when people's lives had been destroyed and would the media take responsibility for their actions? Uncomfortable squirming and spinning followed. Yes, of course we know that our news reporting has important consequences - blah blah blah.

Except for the one ranting woman mentioned in post above, vocal members of audience were uniformly critical of media handling. I had on my blue "Innocent" wrist band and saw several others. Saw several people with a 3 inch diameter lapel button displaying crossed lax sticks with "Innocent Until Proven Innocent" written on it. Person next to me thought he identified Peter Wood in audience but he said nothing.

One question by Stasio concerned media policy on mentioning name of "rape victim" and he was called down by someone in audience mentioning that in this case no rape had ever been proven and that he needed to say accuser or something else to give the accused benefit of doubt. Each on panel said their media organizations don't identify accusers by name but, surprisingly, thought that policy might/should change because of the aspersions cast on the accused that were hard to defend.

Drescher's body language said "I don't want to be here" and it was fun watching him squirm. Ashley seemed much more comfortable.

Coleman? (can't remember) said it was terrible idea for players to talk to cops w/o lawyers. It was mentioned that Duke had told them to not call their parents and cooperate with police. Dresher and others on the panel seemed unaware of that fact. Footlick shakes head in disbelief. (I'm a little scrambled on this one as several people were talking at once.)

Reporterette from WTVD 11 (had camera crew there) had long rambling incomprehensible question that basically boiled down to, I think, being PO'd that local broadcast media weren't included on panel. She wasted about 10 minutes of the question period with her little speech.

Darby said that while there are some race issues on campus they didn't see that bad to her. Meadows disagreed.

That's all that comes to mind right now. Wanted to nail the N&O guy but there were so many people that wanted to blast him that I didn't get a chance.

[Locomotive Breath]

Richard Reeves was there. Watch his writings in the next few weeks to see if he has anything to say.

[bjc]

Nice job. It will be interesting to see how the N&O and HS describe their own performances.

[NeonKnight]

Good stuff LB. Thanks a million. Bilas is a stud, and I am sure he gets it. Coleman is a stud too, but I am sure he has been getting an earfull lately.

Your next assignment...an interview with Crystal. I bet you could pull in 6 figures if you could pull it off.

[RecallMoran]

I saw her once in the early days ranting and raving about a massive consiracy to aler DNA evidence. A certifiable lunatic. Sounds like her from your description.

[Locomotive Breath]

The Chronicle had an online poll recently wherein an overwhelming majority of the students considered the laxers innocent. Unscientific, yes, but if anything close to the truth James Zou is going to have a very uncomfortable life in the next few weeks.

As for Cosmo, what would you expect from the spawn of Helen Gurley Brown

[Locomotive Breath]

Guy next to me was a Durham resident and said he had seen her on the street in town. I'll bet it could be done.