Readers’ Note:
Yesterday I posted "Duke lacrosse: A fake Herald Sun story?"
I said I’d send emails to the reporter, John Stevenson, and his editor, Bob Ashley. They follow.
I’ll let you know what, if anything, I hear back.
John
__________________________________
Reporter John Stevenson
Durham Herald Sun
Dear Reporter Stevenson:
Your Aug. 1 story, “Lawyers haggle over DNA matches," appears to be based on a "repackaging" of information that's been in the public domain for over three months.
See the Apr. 11 Raleigh N&O story and the WRAL.COM Apr. 10 story referenced in this post:
http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2006/08/duke-lacrosse-fake-herald-sun-story.html
It seems you were not reporting on "previously undisclosed [DNA] matches" as you claimed in your story.
If I'm in error, please correct me with information I can verify.
If I'm correct, will you please explain to me and to your readers in a follow up story why you made the "previously undisclosed claim" and repackaged "old news?"
Also, in your story you fail to identify attorney and N. C. Central University Law School Professor Irving Joyner's connection to the Duke lacrosse case.
It is a very serious violation of legal ethics for an attorney to speak publicly about a case he's involved in without disclosing that involvement.
I have no doubt Professor Joyner observed proper ethical practice.
Shouldn't you have identified Joyner's connection to the case and also let readers know about some of his previous comments, hardly those of a disinterested party?
I plan to post this email, along with one I'm sending Editor Bob Ashley, at my blog.
I'll publish your response in full.
Overall, I think your reporting on Duke lacrosse has been quite good.
Sincerely,
John
www.johnincarolina.com
___________________________________
Editor Bob Ashley
Durham Herald Sun
Dear Editor Ashley:
I sent the email below to Reporter John Stevenson.
I'm asking you the same questions I asked him.
But I want to ask you another question: Why did you decide to expand your "support Nifong/ignore injustice" agenda from the editorial pages and start running it in the news columns?
As in the case of Stevenson, I'll publish your response in full.
Thank you for your attention to this request.
Sincerely,
John
www.johnincarolina.com
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Duke lacrosse: I ask reporter & editor, "Was that a fake story?"
Posted by JWM at 10:42 AM
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3 comments:
Ask him why he said "semen" on the towel, when NandO and Cheshire said
"specimen." Let's get to the bottom of this. Who's being smeared here? Of course you find DNA in a person's own house. see http://www.liestoppers.blogspot.com/ for a good analysis of H-S and NandO
Wow, they found semen in a house inhabited by young men.
Like the dog that didn't bark, you know?
-AC
Background on Stevenson, found on Free Republic.
Sourced from a May, 2003 Indyweek article
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1678586/posts?page=220#220
John Stevenson, Staff
Writer
With two decades on the civil and criminal court beat, Stevenson serves as the lead writer on the Peterson trial, though other reporters fill in feature stories and a variety of sidebars. Among the reporting staff, Stevenson also holds the longest tenure in the Herald-Sun newsroom, by far.
He isn't often in the newsroom, though, as he's usually hanging out in the fourth-floor courthouse lounge, working sources and drinking coffee. Stevenson isn't known for winning writing awards, but he's respected among the courthouse regulars, including the judge who's handling the Peterson case.
A Penn State grad who worked at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot before coming to the Herald-Sun, Stevenson has experience covering several of Durham's high-profile murder trials, including the racially charged case of white Durham homeowner Michael Seagroves, who shot and killed a black teen-aged intruder in 1993, and the murder trial of drunken-driver Timothy Earl Blackwell in 1998.
In addition to covering the court system as a journalist, Stevenson for years ran a side business publishing a legal newsletter that detailed Durham trials for an audience of local attorneys--an enterprise even Stevenson (who has since sold the business) admits "might have been seen as a conflict of interest."
On May 6, in the heat of a pre-trial hearing in the Peterson case, Stevenson dodged a conflict of a different sort. When defense attorney David Rudolf began calling reporters to testify, Stevenson split moments before he was summoned to the witness box, leaving Deputy Managing Editor Rocky Rosen to explain sheepishly from the audience that Stevenson had suddenly become ill.
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