I think the best newspaper reporting on Friday's panel at Duke Law School is in today's Chronicle.
Hat tip to Ashley Dean and her editors.
If you want to compare the Chronicle story to the two area dailies, the Ranleigh N&O story is here and the Durham H-S story is here.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Best newspaper reporting on Friday's panel
Posted by JWM at 9:21 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I agree that the Chronicle was better. But I think there's one factual error...
John Drescher, M.A. '88 and managing editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, said he felt his paper overemphasized the class issue, especially early in the case.
I thought I heard the exact opposite. Here's what the H-S said
John Drescher, managing editor of The News & Observer of Raleigh, said race and class had nothing to do with his paper's coverage, which he said was focused on divining the details of "what happened that night."
The N&O was silent on Drescher's comments about race and class.
I remember this well because I was shocked at Drescher's remark that it was NOT about race and class because the N&O's infamous "swagger" article could not have been more supportive of Nifong's characterization of the team as “a bunch of hooligans” whose “daddies could buy them expensive lawyers.”
LB, you mean a newspaper made a factual error? How can that be? I thought (according to one of the panelists) that bloggers and bb posters were error-prone because we don't have "editors" and "fact-checkers"?
Knock me over with a feather...
Walter Abbott
Well, I give a pass to the student-run Cronicle because it's a bunch of undergrads doing it on top of everything else.
With the exception of this one factual error, as John pointed out, the rest of the Chronicle article was better than their "professional" counterparts.
The Chronicle summary about the forum was very good except for the Drescher comments. I was also pleased to see the new article in response to the "Don't Vote" opinion story, as well as 2 responses from Duke athletes concerning Ms. Butler's article. (In addition, there was aroung 30 online posts commenting on those two particular articles.)
John Drescher agrees with the Chronicle writer:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=duke_lacrosse_forum&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
I disagree that the comment was a factual error.
I was there and took notes. When asked if there was anything the panelists would have done differently (looking back on their coverage), Drescher said several things, including the use of the word victim. He also said he thought the N&O maybe emphasized class too much, particularly following the initial indictments (Remember the story where the homes of the 2 players were described in detail?)
So according to my notes, The Chronicle was correct.
Are you referring to this?
Overall, I said at the forum Friday, our coverage has been strong. While those in the national media often have focused on issues of race and class, we’ve emphasized getting to the bottom of what happened that night and covering the ensuing investigation and key players.
Drescher clearly means to imply that the N&O did NOT focus on race and class which is contrary to the Chronicle article and agrees with the Herald Sun.
Read my summary of the N&O's headline coverage in the first month. You tell me how much of an N&O focus there was on race and class.
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=duke_lacrosse_forum&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
NO, that is not what I am referring to. I have the whole thing on tape, but I don't have time to re-listen to it now. If you will recall the question when an audience member asked what, if anything, media would have done differently. Drescher CLEARLY stated that a) he felt he used the word victim a little irresponsibly (my word, not his), and b) that he felt perhaps he was too focused on class. This was very clear in his response to THIS question. The Chronicle article, I believe, was stating Drescher's response to this question in particular, and not to Drescher's other comments. I will go back to my tape later and type up his EXACT response, but I think you are not focusing on the correct moment in the discussion, since what you typed came at a different section of the panel.
Loco- just wondering if you were even at the event. You seem to have inaccurate information.
Post a Comment