Readers Note: Back on Dec. 26 at the Editors' Blog Melanie Sill, executive editor for news at The Raleigh N&O, the paper which for nine months withheld from readers and the rest of media the news that the false accuser, in her Mar. 24 interview, had identified the second dancer and made statements which the N&O says it didn’t mention because they were libelous, posted this little item Sill titled, “Crime chatter:”
Mandy Locke writes today about forums and chat rooms surrounding crime investigations including several local cases: Duke lacrosse, Peyton Strickland and Michelle Young.Reporter Locke’s piece is one of those typical “ridicule the blogs and their readers” stories many MSM newspapers run in order to discourage people from reading and commenting at blogs, forums, etc.
Here’s a small sample Locke’s “reporting:”
Itching to find out whether Jason Young's mistress gave a eulogy at his departed wife Michelle's funeral? Can't wait to offer some theory about why New Hanover County sheriff's deputy Chris Long shot to death Durham native Peyton Strickland? Want to dissect DNA testing procedures used in the Duke lacrosse rape case? […]Melanie Sill's post about Locke’s “story” didn’t draw a single comment until this morning, when it drew a very thoughtful and powerful one.
Online forums -- often sparked by the latest titillating crime story -- have become portals for people around the world to swap theories or debate each salacious turn in the case. It's partly about playing detective, partly about gossiping at the lunchroom table. […]
Why was she buying Strawberry Shortcake bed linens? The question kept posters going for a half hour just before 4 a.m. one day last week.
"I understand she has a little boy. She seems a little old to be enticing her husband to bed with those kind of sheets," one poster wrote.
I responded to the commenter.
The comment and my response follow.
After reading them I hope you’ll leave your own comment on the "Crime chatter" thread. I hope those of you who post at other blogs, forums, etc will pass the word to them and encourage more comments. And, as always, I look forward to your comments.
John
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Comment from: Michelle West [Visitor]
01/05/07 at 09:06
This morning I read the account by a Professor Davidson defending her decision to sign a petition before knowing anything about the guilt or innocence of any of the lacrosse players. She described most of the critical comments that she has received as coming from "right winged hooligans" ---- that term used again.
My hope is that before any of my children are old enough to attend college, the Duke administration will "clean house". The narrow-minded jealousy, prejudice and ignorance that runs through my fellow Ph.D.'s at this institution is a poison that will eventually destroy it from within.
Imagine, just for once if those boys did not have the financial means to fight off this blatant attack on their rights? They would be in jail for many years because of a corrupt District Attorney and a faculty group of 88 that exists without the guts and backbone to say "I'm sorry". They continue to rationalize for their own self-serving purposes.
No one forced that woman to strip. She wanted to make money. That is all. There is no noble meaning to her choice. None at all. She was doing a job.
I am also a professor and I have watched this in horror. It matters not the color of the unjustly accused, there is no glory in a false accusation. I am a Black woman. And I have a relative attending Duke. This is horrifying.
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Comment from: John [Visitor] · http://www.johnincarolina.com
01/05/07 at 15:13
Dear Dr. West,
Thank you for a concise, informed analysis of much of what's been going on in the Duke Hoax case. It’s a fine response to N&O reporter Mandy Locke’s story which refers to “the Duke lacrosse rape case;” and then goes on to ridicule people who comment at blogs, forums and chat rooms
You’re right in everything you say, but I want to add something to your comment. I hope you respond.
DA Nifong and Duke’s faculty group of 88 have been helped to do the great injustices they’ve done by many others.
Among the most important of those who’ve enabled Nifong and “the 88” are those reporters and editors at The Raleigh News & Observer who gave readers and the rest of media biased, inflammatory and false reporting that included extensive news suppression; and who continue to engage in a deliberate cover-up of what they did.
People commenting on the Hoax Case at blogs, forums, etc like Free Republic, Liestoppers, Friends of Duke University, Right Angles, Betsy’s Page, La Shawn Barber, Durham-in-Wonderland, here at the Editors’ Blog and my blog are intelligent, serious, informed and concerned citizens who want to expose the N&O’s cover-up.
They’re asking questions the N&O should answer.
Why did the N&O withhold from readers and the rest of media the news that during its interview with the false accuser she identified the second dancer and made statements the N&O now says it would have been libelous for it to publish? How could the N&O be libel if it published accurately what the false accuser said?
Why won’t the N&O, the ridiculed commenters ask, publish the full transcript of the interview?
Why is the N&O acting like Nixon at the time of Watergate when he said he would only release parts of the tapes?
Why did the N&O withhold from its now discredited Mar. 25 story and many others that followed it, the news it had that the players had cooperated with police extensively and repeatedly?
Why did the N&O instead promulgate in its Mar. 25 story the lie that the players were stonewalling and covering up for teammates?
Why did the N&O continue to report that lie in subsequent stories without telling readers what it knew of the players cooperation?
Why did the N&O publish “the vigilante” poster after Duke had expressed concerns that doing so would endanger not only the 43 white lacrosse players pictured on the poster but other Duke students and citizens?
I hope, Dr. West, that you continue to comment here. If enough of us speak up often enough someone at McClatchy may finally take notice and do what needs to be done to correct some things that are terribly wrong at the N&O.
McClatchy could start by exposing the cover-up. Readers and the rest of media are entitled to the truth.
Sincerely,
John in Carolina
5 comments:
Does someone know the e-mail address of the CEO of McClatchy?
Thanks John!
Keep givin' them heat!
Kent
Great post, it's in, thanks!
absurd thought -
God of the Universe loves
prosecutors gone wild...
..
John, keep after this. This is almost as bad as Nifong, except he actually has legal responsibilities. Ruth Sheehan has moral responsibility, which she obviously doesn't care about.
Legal or moral, I and others won't put up with this yellowbelly for a 'reporter'.
If you want to read more Durham bashing, you can do so in Jim Wise's latest column in the N&O.
True, Wise got unceremoniously thrown out when the new owners took over the Durham paper. But this column smacks a little too much of personal vindictiveness. If Durham was so bad, why was he there in the first place?
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