News-Record.com

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.