After ducking questions for weeks about the Raleigh News & Observer’s biased and inflammatory Duke lacrosse coverage, exec editor for news Melanie Sill is now telling readers she’ll answer questions about the N&O’s coverage.
BUT WAIT, WAIT!
Before you all rush over to the Editor’s Blog, I must tell you that Sill has set a condition on what questions she’ll answer. She says she’ll only answer questions that are “new.”
That means, for instance, that Sill isn’t going to tell us why the N&O, in its first “Duke lacrosse” story on Mar. 24, made the decision to refer to the accuser as “the victim” or in the possessive form “the victim’s” seven times without once using a qualifying “alleged” or “reported.”
It’s too bad Sill refuses to tell us why the N&O did that. What reason(s) did the N&O have for abandoning the standard journalistic practice of using a conditional qualifier when a rape has been alleged but not proved?
Why, in that Mar. 24 story, did the N&O decide to frame the Duke students as victimizers of a woman who was horrifically gang-raped, beaten and strangled?
The players whom the N&O helped to frame in the public’s mind are entitled to answers. So are their parents. And so are readers who subscribe for fair, factual reporting.
I’m going to keep asking in other posts about the Mar. 24 story and other instances of the N&O biased and inflammanaory coverage, which took a terrible situation and made it worse, including more dangerous.
But here let’s identify some new questions for Sill; ones that as far as I know no one has asked at the Editor’s Blog.
Is it true, Editor Sill, what some of us have been hearing: The Mar. 25 sympathetic interview with the accuser was taped?
If that’s true, when are you going to release a transcript with only accuser and her family’s ID information removed?
If the interview was taped, in whose care has the tape(s) been since the interview and up until now?
What is the quality of those tapes? Are they free of spot erasures other than to remove ID info?
When was the last time anyone at the N&O listened to the tape? Who was that person(s)? How do reader(s) ask question(s) of the person(s)?
If the interview wasn’t taped, why wasn’t it taped?
Who made the decision not to tape the interview?
What reasons(s) was given for not taping the interview?
Folks, I’ll be asking some other new questions tomorrow.
Full disclosure: Editor Sill for many months repeatedly threatened to ban me from the McClatchy Company’s Editor’s Blog. She offered a variety of reasons which don’t stand scrutiny. I think I have a right to comment at the Editor’s Blog, but her repeated threats became harassing so six or so weeks back I ceased commenting there.
I hope others will ask Sill the questions posed here. They’re important and readers deserve answers.
It was the N&O’s Mar. 25 story that took what should have been a thorough and judicious investigation of reported crimes and turned it instead into the hysteria fueled witch hunt that’s afflicted our community and caused immeasurable damage to many innocent people, the final reckoning of which we’ll not know for many years.
I have no brief for DA Mike Nifong who I think should be removed from office. But he didn’t go public about the case until the afternoon of Mar. 27. That was after the N&O had poisoned the public’s mind against the players and inflamed the community. Nifong followed where the N&O had led.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Duke lacrosse: New questions for the Raleigh N&O
Posted by JWM at 1:48 PM
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18 comments:
Here's some interesting statistics that I posted on the NandO Blog today.
I've done some research this morning and here's what I've found. The data is from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation site.
http://sbi2.jus.state.nc.us/crp/public/Default.htm
In 2005, for North Carolina, there were 1,465 arrests statewide for Prostitution and Commercial Vice. The state's population for 2005 is estimated at 8,683,42. That's one arrest per 5,927 persons.
There were 1,800 arrests for Sex Offenses statewide for the same year. That's a ratio of one arrest per 4,824 persons.
In Durham County, there were no arrests in 2005 for Prostitution and Commercial Vice. There were nine arrests in 2004.
There were 9 arrests in Durham County for Sex Offenses in 2005, none in 2004.
Durham County's 2005 population is 242,582. That makes the ratio one arrest per 26,953 persons.
All the arrests in 2004 and 2005 were made by the Durham County Sheriff. None were made by the Durham Police Department or the Duke University Police.
I make no accusation here. The facts speak for themselves.
Fascinating post by anonymous. Will Sill and McClatchy's N&O ever do some real reporting? What's the story on Nifong and the Durham police? Why so few prostitution and commercial vice arrests? Is Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chief officer, aware of the quality of reporting and editing in the March 24 and March 25 articles?
Where did she say this, John? I don't see anything on the blog.Probably an E-mail...she doesn't want to incite all of regularly posting over there.
We'll get some "new" questions for her ASAP.
John,
Regarding your comment about Editor Sill's self-imposed response conditions where you say: "She says she’ll only answer questions that are “new.”
In fact, Editor Sill's conditions are even more restrictive than that. She says: "I will post on that case again when there is something new to discuss regarding our coverage."
In other words, if the N&O has not covered a topic/story and if she does not consider the topic/story to be "new," she apparently will not post on that topic/story.
Editor Sill's concept of interactive journalism and blogging and her responsibility to be responsive to the topic that the multitude of her bloggers wish to address is simply fascinating.
ME
Anon who said: "Here's some interesting ...
Extraordinarily interesting data presented in a "let date speak manner."
You know I'll want to check data before commenting but I sure will.
Anything you can add about how to do that will be welcome. You may have already guessed I'm a tech dummy.
Twain,
I think the N&O will resist any way it can reporting the truth of the Duke lacrosse case.
That's what it's done from the beginning when it described the accuser as "the victim" and framed the students as her victimizers.
We need to build public awareness to the point that enough decent citizens demand corrections, and force someone at McClatchy to step in and try to undo as much of the harm the N&O has done as possible. We different but similarly focused action in the legal domain.
Corrections, removals, redresses and apologies by those two domains will leave Duke University as the final major contributor to the monumental injustice we call the Duke lacrosse case.
Duke will be the toughest of the three domains to set right.
Joan,
Like so many others, I continue to admire what you‘re doing. You’re making a real contribution to the struggle to right major injustices.
As regards what I posted about Melanie, take a look at ME's comment and my comment to him.
If you still think I need to do something by way of what I posted about Melanie's "new," I'll take a look at what you say.
ME,
You're right. Melanie was more restrictive than I said.
But she did say "new," and I linked 3 times to her post so readers could see for themselves everything she's said there.
When corresponding to or talking about Melanie I try to do two things:
1) Make fact-based criticisms.
2) Understate my criticisms.
If a reader makes the smallest mistake in an otherwise very important and correct comment, Melanie picks out the small mistake for response. Witness, for example, what happened at the Editor's Blog a few days ago.
Days after Melanie had said she'd make no more comments on the most recent EB Duke lacrosse post thread, and days after she'd said nothing in response to thoughtful and very informative comments, a few commenters said something about a story being in the Sports section.
Very soon thereafter, Melanie ** PRESTO!! ** commented. She corrected the readers, telling them the story had appeared on page one.
When you seek to be fact based and contend with a dissembler, the dissembler always has you at a disadvantage.
You're restricted to facts. The dissembler can pick at your facts and dissemble too. Woe betides you if your facts aren’t right. The dissembler will cluck-cluck from the highest rooftop.
That said, if you've been visiting EB for some months, you may have seen where many times Melanie has said something I said was wrong. Almost every time I've quoted back to Melanie what I've said, and asked her to tell me and readers what specifically, factually was wrong with what I said.
Almost always at that point, "the blog moves on."
I've said enough about Melanie. She can comment if she likes. Folks at the N&O tell me she often looks in at JinC; and you know from her comments at EB that she keeps following things even after she says, "the blog moves on."
Anon and Twain,
Thanks again for fine comments.
Joan and ME,
Fine comments, also. And lots of people who don't know what you do at EB would thank you tonight if they knew. You add a great deal to the EB . You and others like you, by keeping up the readers’ side of the "conversation" insure that EB isn't just all "talkie-talkie" N&O PR.
Thanks all four of you.
Best,
John
John, thanks so much for your comments and inspiration. I was hoping Melanie had posted a new thread wherein she was willing to look at new questions.
No such luck.
But everywhere I read, questions for the N&O are popping up
The palpable reluctance to answer seems to be feeding the curiosity.
Has the defense lawyers ask for the tapes and notes of reporters from the N and O
Man, it just gets more pitiful by the day, doesn't it?
Wouldn't you love to know how many people from the N&O are reading your blog, Betsy's blog, etc?
_AC
Prostitution and Commercialized Vice Arrest Statistics 1998-2002 per FBI
For Durham County:
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/ezaucr/asp/ucr_display.asp?Select_State=37&Select_County=63&rdoData=1r&rdoYear=98
For State of North Carolina
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/ezaucr/asp/ucr_display.asp?Select_State=37&Select_County=0&rdoData=1r&rdoYear=98
For all of United States
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/ezaucr/asp/ucr_display.asp?Select_State=0&Select_County=0&rdoData=1r&rdoYear=98
I must add that Joan Foster is so thorough and sensible and penetrating that she leaves not much for others to do. I am greatly impressed.
Also, it relieves my conscience somewhat to know that since I can no longer remain civil where Ms. Sill and her ilk are concerned, my absence is not noticeable due to the far superior participation of Ms. Foster.
John, you should be flattered that you draw such intellectual talent. You deserve it. Y'all keep up the good work.
To quote George Gobel,"Did you ever feel like the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?" In this company, I certainly feel like a pair of brown shoes.
I have generally found the N&O to be informative and always check the website for the latest news on the Duke case. I have from the beginning thought the entire case absurd - and wrote a letter (back in May) to Lynn Duke is response to her opinion piece indicating as much. So perhaps I was not especially swayed by the careful phrasing and tendency to reiterate prosecution points and omit defense ones. A specific example of the slant practiced by N&O: When I bring up the link to the latest article "news story by Jim Nesbitt" referenced at the top of this blog....a banner above the story reads "Duke Lacrosse Controversy". The controversy is not about Lacrosse, or the lacrosse team...it is about the rape and the prosecution. The banner SHOULD read "Duke Rape Controversy"...or even better "Duke Prosecution Controversy". If that is too one-sided for the N&O, "Duke Controversy" covers all bases. Duke U. might quibble with that - but the spineless behavior of the administration there deserves no consideration. Even better - "Durham Controversy" - because Durham is the oven this mess exploded in.
The Nesbitt article is nicely geared to point out the tribulations of the accused....managing to note the luxury of beach vacations and Wall Street jobs that are part of their world. What is missing, esp. from an article trying to give the "other side" a little exposure, is at least a attempt at balancing the paragraph describing the charges. Look at the tiny changes necessary to give a more balanced view:
"All three are charged with first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping in connection with the accusations of an escort service dancer who made a variety of claims about being raped during a lacrosse team house party that started March 13 and continued into the early hours of the next day. A second escort service dancer says one player threatened to use a broomstick on the women as a sex toy and said that, later, another player shouted a racial insult as the dancers left. This same dancer also called the accuser’s story a crock when being interviewed by police and told a 911 operator that no one had been physically hurt, just that racial insults had been shouted. A neighbor confirmed that the woman and the players had traded insults of a racial and gender-based nature, the boys shouting racial slurs, the second dancer, emasculating ones. "
The use of the word “witnesses” implies that there were many...there are only two, correct? Neighbor and second dancer. “Traded insults” is less biased....it wasn’t a one-way shouting match. This rewrite keeps a balance - two negatives, two positives and a “charged with” offset by “variety of claims”.
Is that so difficult for the N&O "reporters"?
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