Hoax mythbuster post 1

Blogger Betsy Newmark, among others, has said that some folks are creating Duke Hoax myths.

She’s right.

“It’s all Nifong’s fault. No one else is to blame. Certainly not me.”

That’s the most popular myth right now, and I suspect will remain the most popular myth until most of Nifong’s enablers in media, at Duke, in Durham and elsewhere have left the scene.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not excusing Nifong. I’ve said for many months I think he should be disbarred and prosecuted.

But he didn’t act alone.

Another popular myth is “It was such a really, really confusing time. And the issues were so complex. Gee, who could have known?”

That myth is a particular favorite of Duke University’s President, Richard H. Brodhead.

Then there’s the “It was really the players, their parents and attorneys’ fault” myth.

If you’re a regular visitor to The Raleigh News & Observer’s Editors’ Blog you’re very familiar with that myth. Here’s how John Drescher, N&O managing editor, recently explained it:

[O]ur reporting was hampered by the unwillingness of the Duke players, their parents and their lawyers to speak to us. We first put this story on the front page March 24 when 46 members of the team gave DNA under an unusual court order. Bob Ekstrand, a lawyer for some of the players, declined to speak with us and told the players, “Don’t answer any questions.”

In our story the next day, in which the accuser gave her account, players declined to return phone calls and parents and Coach Mike Pressler declined comment. Looking back, we could have put those “no comments” higher in the story but it would not have changed the fact that no one was speaking for the players.

But it was the N&O’s decision to tell readers and the rest of media the False Accuser was granted anonymity because she was “a victim of sex crimes.”

It was the N&O’s decision to withhold for days the critically important news that the players had cooperated with police.

It was the N&O’s decision to instead promulgate the lie the players were stonewalling and covering up for three teammates who were gang-rapists.

It was the N&O’s decision to publish news columnist Ruth Sheehan’s “Team’s Silence is Sickening” column.

When DA Nifong first began speaking publicly about the case on Mar.27 he attacked the players just as Sheehan had earlier that morning for not speaking to police. The public now knows Nifong was lying; the N&O knew it them. But it made no mention of that when it reported his remarks the next day.

Now we’re told:

[O]ur reporting was hampered by the unwillingness of the Duke players, their parents and their lawyers to speak to us.

That pernicious myth serves only the interests of N&O reporters and editors who now want to escape responsibility for the enormous contribution they made to the witch hunt and the monumental injustices it spawned.

If the N&O and other major enablers succeed in their myth-making, great harm will befall individuals and the community.

Innocent people, most especially the Duke students and their families, will be further victimized by the Hoax, the witch hunt and the injustices. They’ll have less chance to get some degree of restorative justice in the form of meaningful apologies, story retractions, financial compensations and the relief that will come from seeing institutions and organizations which victimized them begin to make changes to assure they will never again in similar circumstances victimize innocent people.

If those who enabled Nifong escape responsibility for what they did, they and others like them will be more likely in the future to enable another hoax. They’ll know there are no consequences for what they do.

If the myth-makers succeed we will be left with a grossly distorted account of how injustices, including crimes, and great harm to innocent people and the community came about.

What can we learn from a grossly distorted account? Mostly gross distortions.

If that happens we’ll be less able to recognize and respond properly to highly charged false witness and its enablement the next time they occur, as surely they will.

Who wants to see our community ever again brought to the point where the Mayor of Durham, the Chancellor of NC Central University and the President of Duke University agree they need to take full-page ads in area newspapers calling for community calm?

This post is the first in a series meant to expose Hoax myths, especially the three myths I cited above.

Tomorrow I’ll put up the second post in the series. It’s built on a post I put up on April 9, the same day the N&O ran its “Swagger” story and three days after Duke University’s faculty Group of 88 published its exploitive and irresponsible full-page “listening statement” ad in The Chronicle.

The Apr. 9 post makes clear how far the three myths are from the truth. I think it also shows how easily most of the witch hunt and its injustices could have been avoided if the N&O, the major news organization in the Duke/Durham area and the leader of the media pack that went after the players, had reported the story with reasonable adherence to the standards of fair and accurate journalism.

For those of you who want to “read ahead,” here’s a link to the Apr. 9 post.

I hope you’re back tomorrow.