Covering the Duke lacrosse coverage
The Maynard Institute's Richard Prince compiles observations from near and far on the coverage of the Duke lacrosse team controversy.
One of the criticisms is that the accuser has not been portrayed as a person -- merely a "stripper."
But one account in the News & Observer of Raleigh featured a detailed interview with the woman, noting that she is the mother of two and is working her way through college at N.C. Central University. The story also recounted events on the night the alleged rape occurred.
Part of the problem, of course, is that most media (including the News & Record) don't identify alleged rape victims by name.
As N&O Public Editor Ted Vaden cites, this raises other questions such as how fair and ethical it is for a paper to allow the woman to give a detailed account of the alleged rape under the cover of anonymity.
Vaden writes: "... The N&O did not offer to let the accused speak anonymously, as it did for the accuser. It's one thing to protect the identity of a sexual assault victim; it's another to let her make detailed allegations without being identified.
"In my view, the interview is at odds with The N&O's own policy on anonymous sources, which discourages their use except when the information can be obtained no other way. In this case, as Williams pointed out, the story used only information from the interview that corroborated the public record, so it didn't add new facts. The added matter was the emotional content -- the crying mother of two -- that gave a human dimension to the police reports."
Meanwhile, the tale (for me) is disturbing even if the rape allegations turn out to be false.
The players' boorish attitudes and abusive behavior, as well as their racial attitudes, are unsettling. So is Duke's institutional response (until most recently) to their pattern of misconduct.
You expect more on a college campus.
Then again, two of the times I've been called a nigger in my life were while walking along public streets when I was an undergrad at Chapel Hill.
A third time I overheard two white male students use the word in reference to a salesman in Milton's, a clothing store on Franklin Street.
They were laughing until they noticed I'd heard them.
Comments (5)
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The reason why the refer to her as a "stripper" is not becasue that happens to be what she does for a livving. It is becuase thats what she was doing there that night, STRIPPING. She was in the sex business, like it or not. Just as the men are being reffered to as Lacrosse team members (with all the "boys club" connotations that go along. And in these circumstances it is far more likely that there is one girl who is evil enough to concoct such a story than there be 46 men who would be evil enough to be complicit in a brutal rape. Right now all we know is what the stripper says versus what 46 lax players are saying. so it entirely right to call the men lax players and the girl a stripper.
if you fight you instict to fight and think about what i am saying you will see that you are wrong.
Posted on April 8, 2006 4:20 PM
Mike:
I don't want to fight.
I was simply repeating what others had contended. I didn't say I agree with it -- and in this case I don't.
Posted on April 10, 2006 12:22 AM
This ladies story gets worse by the hour.
I wonder how these so called news people feel now. The young people have been raked of the coals by all the media , including Fox, who as a rule does a good job. Some in the press worry about her being call a stripper. And brag she a working mom. Looks like she is more than that?
These young men have been marked for life. Now lets see if the media will get off of their butts and find out what really happen. DNA says no way hosa.
Posted on April 10, 2006 6:47 PM
It looks like the only boorish behaviors came not only for the so-called mother of 2 stripper but also from the black community and various feminists pot bangers who were quick to claim that: "to be white and rich makes one a rapist of minority females." Will those boorish racists now apologize to the young men they accused of rape?
Posted on April 10, 2006 7:56 PM
I take no sides in the LaCrosse story; all of it is shameful and disgusting. I do not like either the N&O's or the GNR's policy of naming the "perpetrators" while protecting the "victim." In cases like this, and there are many, everyone's life is damaged and everyone should have the right of privacy.
Posted on April 12, 2006 1:41 PM