Two 911 calls but Raleigh's News&Observer reports only one. Why?

Today’s Raleigh News & Observer ran a six-column, page one headline:

Duke puts lacrosse games on hold

The story began:

As community outcry grew louder, Duke University President Richard Brodhead announced Tuesday that the university has suspended all games of its nationally ranked men's lacrosse team until rape allegations are resolved.

Later in its story The N&O said:

Emergency 911 tapes revealed that on the night of the alleged incident (Mar. 13 – JinC), two passers-by, both black women, reported that a man who came out of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. (where the incident is alleged to have occurred - JinC) shouted a racial slur at them.

Despite mentioning “tapes,” the N&O only reported on one 911 call. It printed that call’s transcript beside its story.

But there was at least one other 911 call that night concerning the incident.

Both The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper, and the Durham based daily, The Herald-Sun, have reported on that call.

Here’s part of the H-S’s report:

(Durham City) Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael did not answer questions about the time between the woman's call and the call reporting the alleged rape, which came from a security guard at the Kroger on Hillsborough Road.

Michael said the alleged rape victim was not the same woman who called about the racial slur. But Michael did not respond to a question asking whether the woman who called about the racial slur was the woman who accompanied the alleged rape victim to the party.

When the Kroger security guard called police, she told the dispatcher that the alleged victim was sitting in a car and was "intoxicated, drunk or something." The guard said the woman wouldn't get out of the car.

The H-S report also notes that in an interview yesterday the security guard now says the women was not drunk or intoxicated.

The H-S provided readers with the transcripts of both 911 calls made the night of Mar. 13.

Why didn’t The N&O’s Mar. 29 story report the second 911 call? Why didn’t The N&O provide transcripts of both calls, instead of just the first?

Late this morning, I phoned N&O public editor Ted Vaden and asked him those questions.

Vaden said he hadn’t heard anything about the second 911 call but would look into it “with our editors.”

I asked if he would get back to me with what he learned, so I could share the information with you.

Vaden replied, “No." He did add that he "might write something Sunday that might speak to your concerns.”

There’s much more I want to report on The N&O’s coverage of the Mar. 13 incident but the hour is late.

I’ll be back tomorrow. I hope you are too.