A Duke lacrosse post mostly for regulars

(Readers Note: Regulars can skip this note.

For those fairly new to this blog, the post below is a comment I left at the blog of a Raleigh N&O columnist, Ruth Sheehan, who wrote two columns savaging the Duke Men's lacrosse players and demanding their coach be fired.

Yesterday Sheehan wrote a column saying that Durham DA Nifong is to blame for everything that's wrong with the Duke lacrosse case. She excused herself and her N&O colleagues from any responsibility for helping create the witch hunt.

I'm not providing links because I'm under some deadlines. The regulars here are familiar with the reference and sourcing.

If you decide to move on, I hope you'll first look around and come back another time.

Thank you, John
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Comment from: John [Visitor] · http://www.johnincarolina.com
06/20/06 at 15:32
Ruth,

Remember when you removed the lacrosse Mom's comment along with your dismissive comment to her and reader comments supporting the Mom?

You later claimed you removed them because you were unfamiliar with how blogs work.

If that was the case, then you may not know it’s common at many blogs for commenters to "continue the conversation" from one blog post to another. That's what Daryl's doing above.

Some bloggers welcome "continuing the conversation." The discussion can deepen and broaden, errors are identified and corrected, and new thinking generated.

Other bloggers hate "continuing the conversation" and do everything possible to stop it. For examples of what I'm talking about, take a look at all the treads relating to the Duke lacrosse case at the Editor's Blog. Your exec news editor, Melanie Sill, is doing everything she can to prevent reader-commenters from "continuing the conversation" about the N&O's biased and inflamatory coverage which took a terrible situation and made it worse, including more dangerous.

Now back to talking about you blog here.

At your post, "Nifong: Should he stay or go?", what I'm about to say continues the conversation from your post, “More lovenotes from my fans re: Duke....”

At "lovenotes" you responded to nothing any of the commenters, including me, said.

Some of what I’m about to say here I said at “More lovenotes from my fans re: Duke….” And some of it is new.

Here goes.

Ruth, have you noticed that all the people you sarcastically call your "fans" aren't writing about Duke?

No kidding, Ruth. Read their comments.

They're writing about fairness, due process and in opposition to reckless and self-righteous journalism.

Regarding you’re Monday column. I’m glad you want to see Nifong removed from the case.

I’m sorry you used the column to dump responsibility for what you and the N&O did onto Nifong.

Please stop doing that and take some responsibility for your own actions and those of others like you in media.

It certainly wasn’t right for Nifong to blame others to help himself; and it isn’t right for you to do it, either.

You say, ",,, you had to figure he had incontrovertible evidence."

No you didn’t. That’s nonsense!

We’ve all heard some defense attorneys spin cases; some DAs do it too. You know that.

You also know that in recent years, we’ve had in North Carolina a number of highly publicized cases in which DAs committed very serious wrongs, including withholding evidence that proved innocence.

Then there were all the pressures of a tough election campaign weighing on Nifong.

Most of all, you know about presumption of innocence and due process. And you knew the players were entitled to them as is any citizen.

But you went ahead and savagely attacked a group of college students for doing nothing more than following advice of counsel.

In a subsequent column, you also demanded Duke "dump" their coach, something Duke did a few days later. Coach Pressler is a husband, father of three young children, and a good neighbor and citizen here in Durham.

You know the Coleman report stated Pressler was one of only two people at Duke who always took some action when he was made aware of any unacceptable conduct by the Men’s lacrosse players.

Will you next column tell readers how upset you are that Nifong helped get Pressler fired?

I hope you don’t do that, Ruth. You’d only be avoiding responsibility for what you did.

Such a column won’t fool intelligent and fair-minded people.

The column would only go down with those who are really your fans: People who wanted the team shut down and the coach dumped. People who wanted the players expelled, were glad the N&O published the “vigilante poster,” and wondered why “they aren’t all in jail now.”

Moving on.

Ruth, I hope we agree on something else about blogs. Commenters often talk to each other as well as the blogger. It’s common practice although some bloggers just hate it.

I’m going to talk now to commenters.

To the other John,

I enjoy your comments.

To the other John and all the rest of the commenters on the “More lovenotes from my fans re: Duke….” thread,

I hope you keep commenting. The “lovenotes” thread is a first-class example of what the new, interactive journalism is supposed to be.

Well done.

John

Finally, back to you, Ruth.

I hope you’ll no longer ignore or dismiss the sentiments and advice contained in the lacrosse Mom’s and so many others’ comments here, and in emails to you they’re copied to me.

John