Coverage of Taylor’s Duke Talk

Under the headline:

Author: Lacrosse case will 'get uglier'

and the subhead:

Picture of political correctness, mob mentality unfolding

we read in today’s Durham Herald Sun:

Political correctness was to blame.

That was the message delivered Friday night by Stuart Taylor, co-author of a recent book on the Duke lacrosse case.

"It's spreading like cancer," he said, referring to the PC movement.

Taylor, who co-authored "Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case" with K.C. Johnson, a New York City-based history professor and author of the Durham-In-Wonderland Web log, was invited to speak by the student group Duke Students for an Ethical Duke.

In a Levine Science Research Center auditorium, readers of his book and followers of the lacrosse case hung on the author's every word.

And he detailed his involvement in the case from start to finish.

The rest of the H-S’s story (Monica Chen bylined) is here.

At this Liestoppers Forum thread there is more reporting as well as commentary on Taylor’s talk.

Scroll down to Locomotive Breath’s comment. (11/2 @ 9:35 PM. It’s about the 12th comment down)

LB begins:

ST remarked that he had intended to give a recap of events but after the number of previously read books he'd autographed, many of them earlier autographed by KC, he decided to give a personal story of how he got involved rather than try to recount the facts of the case.

Here's one interesting thing. He said that at a fairly early stage he'd talked to someone in the upper Duke administration who was 85% certain the charges were bogus.

During the question period he was asked who it was. He would not say other than to remark that it was someone who was behaving in public in agreement with the Duke administration position.

There’s more to his comment.

See also a comment by Righteous Thug (11/3 @ 7:49 AM) which is a paste-in of comments Debrah made at Durham-in-Wonderland.

I was there for Taylor’s talk. Chen’s H-S story is a good account.

LB and Debrah via RT “add to the story” and, in the case of Debrah, not just with reportage of the talk. She also reports/comments on an informal discussion she and others had with Taylor prior to his talk.

Raleigh News & Observer reporter Anne Blythe, who with Samiha Khanna reported the N&O’s fraudulent March 25 story about “an ordeal” which ended in “sexual violence,” was also at the talk but left about 10 minutes into it.

There’s no account of the talk in today’s N&O. I’ll look for one tomorrow and post on what I find.

Hat tips to the professional and citizen journalists.

And something else: Taylor’s prediction that the case will “get uglier” is, IMO, on the money. I feel sure it will also get more “Dukier.”

What do you think?