On Oct. 23 I posted: “Problems at Duke's lacrosse incident page”The post is an email letter addressed to John Burness, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations at Duke University. It begins:
Duke’s News and Communication’s lacrosse incident page has been a valuable aid to many people, including me. I thank you and the university for that.I detailed the four matters and asked for his response.
However, much about the page today is questionable; and some of it is very troubling.
I call to your attention four matters I hope you'll agree deserve your response which, like this letter, I'll share with my readers.
Burness has responded (at a very busy time and while traveling)and, as promised, I’m sharing his response in full with you.
In a few days, I’ll comment.
Right now, as I typically do in such cases, I’m publishing Burness’ response without comment so you’ll have an opportunity to read it and reflect before I comment.
I’ll send Burness a brief email thanking him for his response, linking to this post and promising to send him a link to my follow-up comments which I’ll post by Wednesday if Blogger cooperates.
John
_________________________________________________
Hi John,
It's not our normal practice to respond to blogs because it would be never-ending. That said, I just am getting to your note, as I'm on the West Coast and well behind on the hundreds of emails I receive daily. I have sent no comment on your blog to anyone but you, which follows:
1. We posted the outtakes of President Brodhead originally posted by CBS because he is Duke's president and said a great deal more than was used in the broadcast.
2. We decided at the beginning that our website would not post blogs. I believe that the sole exception was Malcolm Gladwell's piece on eyewitness identification in April which was so different from anything else published before or since.
3 and 4. Errors in the media coverage we have posted are unfortunate, and there are undoubtedly more than the one you cited. We don't have the staff time or the resources to attempt to correct all of them, and we have not tried to do so.
Our goal was simply to show a range of representative media comment.
The decision by the folks in the News and Communications office to post the editorial following 60 Minutes in the Herald Sun (the hometown newspaper) reflects a desire to show a variety of reactions to the broadcast. We don't see it as an endorsement of any candidate. It's lumped with Jason Whitlock's column which calls for the case to be dropped and a more balanced editorial from the Duke Chronicle.
John F. Burness
Senior Vice President For Public Affairs
and Government Relations
Duke University
3 comments:
From NRO Online's Jonah Goldberg:
Re: Wow [Jonah Goldberg]
Yeah, the more you think about it the more outrageous it is. Imagine you're Nifong and you saw that Ed Bradley piece on 60 Minutes making the whole case seem fraudulent to pretty much any rational person. If you were a person of integrity — never mind bound to professional ethics rules — wouldn't you call your witness/accuser into the office on Monday morning and simply ask her the sorts of serious questions you needed to? Or wouldn't you call in your most trusted aide and say, "get to the bottom of this." I mean, it's just astounding. He's creating the impression that he actively doesn't care about the facts.
By the way, I got this email yesterday:
I've been a prosecutor in Michigan for almost 32 years (I briefed and
argued the Hudson v Michigan "knock and announce" case this year) and I
was astounded to read that not only had the charges here been brought
without the DA's Office interviewing the alleged victim, but that she
has yet to be interviewed by the DA's office. One doesn't bring
charges in assaultive cases, especially of the sort here, without first
interviewing the alleged victim. I've simply never heard of such a
thing.
John,
You've probably already seen it, but the 2d dancer's statement to ABC News this morning is really bizarre. Roberts drove the 'victim' from the party and in the car, the 'victim' said, 'Go ahead, put marks on me. That's what I want. Go ahead.'
FYI:
Today's front page of the Washington Post reports about the firing of the incoming president of Gallaudet University....hmmm, what a concept....
"The governing board of Gallaudet University revoked the appointment of the school's incoming president yesterday, giving in to the demands of students, faculty and others whose protests have kept the nation's premier school for the deaf in turmoil for the past month."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900533.html
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