Is WRAL mocking Brodhead?

At WRAL.com we see the headline:

DA's Handling of Duke Rape Case Attracts More Criticism

And we read:

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor said Monday he also believes there should be an investigation of Mike Nifong's management of the Duke lacrosse rape investigation.

"I think the best course of action, at this moment, is for Mike Nifong to remove himself from this case or for him to be removed," said University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor Joe Kennedy.

That’s a powerful statement. How often has a law professor in NC said a prosecutor should step aside or be removed from a case?

Kennedy’s gone further than Duke law professor James Coleman who in June called on Nifong to step aside.

WRAL next reports:

The statement comes after Rep. Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, last week, sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking for a federal investigation into possible prosecutorial misconduct and to determine whether the defendants' civil rights were violated.

Kennedy said that Jones' request seemed overblown to him until allegations later arose that Nifong and a lab director purposely withheld DNA results showing none of the charged players' DNA was found on or in the accuser's body.

He said the allegations create a serious conflict of interest.

"I think his actions with respect to nondisclosure of this DNA information needs to be investigated," Kennedy said.[…]

A congressman from the political right is requesting a Justice Department investigation of a DA's conduct and a law professor from the political left looks at that same conduct and says it “needs to be investigated.”

Those are powerful blows to Nifong and "his case," regardless of what Durham Herald Sun editor Bob Ashley and community activist Victoria Peterson might tell us.

But wait, there’s more.

According to Garry Frank, president of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, however, other district attorneys have also expressed concerns about Nifong's conduct.

"It's premature to comment while the court is still contemplating," Frank said. "I think the conference will address this at some point."

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday that a Nifong probe is possible but declined to comment any further on the matter.

Could it get any worse for a DA?

Then we read:

On Monday, Duke University President Richard Brodhead said that the case "will be on trial just as much" as the defendants.

In a statement released by the university, Brodhead said the defendants should be presumed innocent as the case pushes toward a possible spring trial date.

Yawn! Of course the defendants should be presumed innocent. We all learned that by sixth grade.

Maybe there’s a little bit of news value in Brodhead’s statement since he’s been so harsh on the players. But surely his statement is little more than a soggy noodle dropped amidst sharpened axes.

Yet WRAL goes on and characterizes Brodhead’s statement thus:

It was the latest blow to Nifong's case against Reade Seligmann, 20, Collin Finnerty, 20, and David Evans, 23.[...]

The latest blow?

Is WRAL mocking Brodhead or was "the latest blow" unintentional?