How Ashley "endorses" Nifong

Durham Herald Sun Editor Bob Ashley has not been able to stop the steep declines in the H-S’s circulation numbers and advertising revenue which began shortly after he became editor in late 2004.

But Ashley has found ways to get around a long-standing H-S policy that other editors have respected: not endorsing candidates for local office.

The H-S has traditionally seen itself as “a paper for the whole community.” It's also the only Durham-based daily newspaper. So the H-S has a long-standing policy of not taking sides in local elections.

But that policy presented Ashley with a problem.

Ashley’s a strong supporter of Durham DA Mike Nifong who’s locked in a tight election battle with Durham County Commissioner Lewis Cheek. A write-in candidate, Steve Monks, who's polling in the low single digits, could play a spoiler role by taking votes from Cheek and thereby tipping the election to Nifong.

So what could Ashley do to help Nifong?

Ashley effectively runs the H-S. He could have ignored its non-endorsement policy and endorsed Nifong outright. In at least one editorial, he all but did that. (I can no longer access the editorial. I'll email Ashley Monday and keep you informed. )

But an outright H-S endorsement would have shattered the “community paper” image that Ashley still tries to maintain. What’s more, most Durhamites would’ve recognized it as another “Ashley change.” That recognition would only call more attention to the H-S’s circulation and ad revenue declines, news stories Ashley understandably downplays.

So instead of an endorsement on the editorial page, Ashley appears to have found at least two other ways to help Nifong.

One involves using news stories to boost Monks’ candidacy. Experts agree Monks has no chance of winning (In two recent polls of voter preferences, Monks polled 2% and 5%). Experts also agree almost all Monks’ votes would otherwise go to Cheek, Nifong’s only series challenger.

But just about all H-S DA race stories have reported nothing about any of that.

Instead, Ashley's H-S gives Monks so much "puff" coverage you'd think Monks was Nifong’s only serious challenger and Cheek was the guy with poll numbers close to zero (See the H-S's two most recent DA race stories here and here.)

Another way Ashely’s found to help Nifong is by sliming and sometimes outright falsely reporting on Duke lacrosse players and those supporting them.

In a H-S Oct. 17 editorial, “Little new in ’60 Minutes’ report,” there’s this:

”The players maintained an aura of sweet innocence with reporter Ed Bradley either downplaying or ignoring conflicting evidence. Collin Finnerty, for example, was portrayed as an outstanding lacrosse prospect, but no mention was made of his recent assault conviction, with strong homophobic overtones, against a gay man on a Washington, D.C. street” (Editorial no longer available online)

The “gay man” the H-S refers to is Jeffrey Bloxsom.

Five months ago, Bloxsom and his attorney went to considerable lengths to let the public know he’s not gay. They said they were doing that not because Bloxsom would be ashamed if he were gay, but because they wanted people to know the truth about Bloxsom and not exploit the incident as gay-bashing. Their statements were widely reported during May.

After that, I hadn't seen another news organization use the “Collin beat a gay” falsehood until the H-S used it on Oct. 17.

But wait, Ashley's H-S can do worse.

In August, Ashley’s paper reported what it said were :

“previously undisclosed [DNA]matches, one involving indicted rape suspect David Evans and the other involving a player not charged, have been confirmed by several sources close to the case. (bold added)

According to the sources, semen on a towel was DNA-linked to Evans.”…

It turned out the H-S’s “previously undisclosed matches” had been disclosed months before (see here and here) in news stories that made clear the towel was not connected to the rape charge and that Evens lived in the house where the towel was found.

And just today in the H-S we find this :

"… Stefanie Sparks, an assistant women's lacrosse coach at Duke who is also a paralegal for -- and sister-in-law of -- Bob Ekstrand, a Durham lawyer who represents several unindicted men's lacrosse players.

Ekstrand, a Duke alumnus, has been an active behind-the-scenes player in the continuing controversy over the case."

In Bob Ashley’s H-S an attorney like Bob Ekstrand becomes in the next sentence “an active behind-the-scenes player in the continuing controversy.”

But Durham Police Sgt. Mark Gottlieb has, as far as I know, never been described by Ashley as “an active behind-the-scenes player” even when he was somewhere typing up 32 pages of single space notes based on two pages of hand-written notes.

The H-S’s declining circulation and ad revenues appear to befuddle Ashley. But my, isn’t he good at helping Nifong?