Monday, February 26, 2007

The Chronicle’s “rape scandal”

On Friday, Feb. 23, Duke’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, ran an editorial that began:

This Saturday, the Duke men's lacrosse team will retake the field and play for the first time since the advent of the now-notorious (sic) rape scandal.
I decided to send the following electronic letter to The Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, Ryan McCartney.

John
_________________________

Dear Editor McCartney:

Re: Your Feb. 12 editorial beginning: “This Saturday, the Duke men's lacrosse team will retake the field and play for the first time since the advent of the now-notorious (sic) rape scandal.”

”Notorious rape scandal?”

Really?

What “notorious rape scandal?”

Sure, some of Duke’s Arts & Sciences professors who fill the University’s most highly endowed chairs were loud last Spring in their demands for the expulsion of students those professors and others said were involved in the “notorious rape scandal.”

We all remember then Professor Houston Baker telling us about “male athletes, veritably given license to rape, maraud, deploy hate speech, and feel proud of themselves in the bargain.”

Durham DA Mike Nifong agreed with the faculty about the “notorious rape scandal.”

But sensible people last Spring were turned off by Nifong and those Duke faculty members. The agreed with the Women’s lacrosse team: Innocent. Or they suspended judgment.

Even President Brodhead, for so many months Nifong’s most prominent enabler, doesn’t talk about the “notorious rape scandal.”

Brodhead now tells people he’s “one of the biggest critics of the way the players have been treated.”

But The Chronicle is still telling the Duke community and everyone else about “the now-notorious (sic) rape scandal.”

Why?

Editor McCartney, you owe your readers an explanation.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I assumed he was referring to the rape of the reputation of the LAX players by Nifong, Durham PD, Brodhead, the Group of 88, Mc$urely, et. al.

I am, of course, not using the sexual sense of rape, but "Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice. " per Houghton Mifflin's on-line dictionary.

-AC

Anonymous said...

According to wordnet.princeton.edu scandal may be defined as "a disgraceful event". How can the actions of the the DA, DPD, the Group of 88, etc in response to the allegation of rape be defined as anything but "a disgraceful event"?

JWM said...

Dear AC,

Thanks for an on-point comment.

Anon@8:33 AM,

You rightly reference DA Nifong and the Group of 88 with regard to the use of the word "scandal."

I've no problem with that. In fact, I think the events and injustices that have followed Crystal Mangum's false witness and Nifong's criminal actions should be called something like "the Mangum-Nifong scandal."

But The Chronicle said "notorious rape scandal" in referencing the Duke Men's lacrosse team.

Reread my post.

Thank you both.

John