Duke lacrosse: The News and Observer

Melanie Sill continues to defend the now discredited story that helped ignite the conflagration. (“Dancer gives details of ordeal”) Please understand, she tells us, it was written on deadline. It takes time for the whole truth to come out.

So true, and yet, so sad. It is one of those pointless little rules of the journalism game. Somehow, getting it first is more important than getting it right.

Oddly enough, just a few weeks ago she was defending the N&O by emphasizing how careful they were.

Often, when people thrash around making contradictory arguments they are trying to defend the indefensible.

I offered a partial defense of the N&O here. The initial coverage by the N&O was understandable if unfortunate. What was and is inexcusable is the slow, grudging way that the paper acknowledged the truth.

It took an almost unprecedented pronouncement by the AG--INNOCENT-- before the N&O saw fit to revise their portrait of a shy student who was new to dancing. They mostly ignored the evidence for a year and then weighed in when the issue was no longer in doubt. In the battle for the truth, they acted like REMFs.

They have never explained how their trained reporter and their editors got conned so easily.

This is not a case of all’s well that ends well. The lax team still lives under the suspicion that “something happened”. That suspicion was planted and bloomed because of the early reporting by the N&O.

Unlike Newsweek, the N&O has not tried to explain what happened that night. They are moving on.

Rather, they are moving on and covering up. Their reporting now is focused on DA Nifong. He is the fall guy. While the prosecutor richly deserves his fate, there are other parts of the frame-up that deserve examination.

Mike Nifong did not enter the case until 23 March. Between the party and his entrance, the DPD and DA’s office did a 180 degree turn. Initially, they believed they were dealing with an uncooperative drunk who told contradictory stories. For some reason they later reversed course and pressed forward. They became so convinced that she was telling the truth that they lied in official documents, lied to the public, ran bogus photo line-ups, and asked for DNA tests on all the white members of the team.

Why?

The N&O now tells us that the DPD is refusing to answer any questions about the case. Where is the outrage at this “blue wall of silence”? The N&O could not contain their anger when the lax players did not confess. Yet, now, they are willing to give the police a pass. It is a very odd sort of double-standard. Public servants with arrest power are accorded less scrutiny than college students accused of a crime.

In the early days of the hoax the Durham city manager weighed in and announced that the accuser had never changed her story:

Baker said he has never received any indication that the woman said she was raped by 20 men or that she changed her story.

"I have no idea where that came from," Baker said. "I've had a lot of conversations with the investigators in this case and with officials at Duke, and at no time did anyone indicate the accuser changed her story. If that were true, I'm sure someone would have mentioned it to me."

Now that we know that the accuser almost never told the same story twice, Baker’s comments are more than interesting.

There are only three possibilities:

Baker did not do much investigating.

Baker lied about what he learned

The DPD lied to Baker.

Funny thing. The N&O has been strangely silent on this matter. Why is the most influential newspaper in North Carolina such a lazy watch dog?

Editor Sill arrogantly tells her critics to read what her paper wrote about the lax case. She would be better off if she gave that advice to the people who work for her. The N&O’s reporting is filled with important facts and tantalizing clues that the paper has never pursued.

Furthermore, why isn’t the N&O interested in the actions inside of Nifong’s office? Joseph Neff has documented Nifong’s and Wilson’s attempts to shore up the frame job through witness intimidation, concealing evidence, and violating procedures. What were the assistant DAs doing while this was going on? Why have they been allowed to hide in Nifong’s shawdow?

The N&0 sent 9--NINE--reporters out to document the lax team’s misdemeanors but they watch an out of control DA for a year and only Neff and Jarvis are sent to chase the story?

The lacrosse players are roundly condemned for boorish behavior. The N&O used their pages to document their run-ins with the law, their reputation on campus, and their relations with their neighbors. They were happy to open their op-ed pages to those who loathed everything the team stood for. They are less interested in the seedy and exploitive world of strip clubs and escort services that thrive in and around Durham.

The lacrosse captains have apologized for throwing the party. Duke is actively working to curtail the drinking and partying of their students. What is Durham doing to clean up its seamy underbelly? What is the N&O doing to bring the problem into focus? Why is the N&O not concerned with all the other men who exploit Precious and other women like her?

The N&O will probably keep pretending that they covered themselves with honor on this story. There is as yet no 12 step program to overcome journalistic obtuseness.