Durham columnist: So what if she lied

Tom Bevan at Realclearpolitics.com:

It's hard to believe anyone could write the following line, but John McCann does it anyway in today's Durham Herald-Sun:

"The lacrosse boys brought it on themselves, though -- even if the accuser's lying."

This is despicable. Would McCann, who is black, even think of writing the same thing if the case involved a white accuser and 44 black members of the football team? Of course not.

Perfect word choice, Tom.

What McCann says is despicable. It's every bit as despicable as Jesse Jackson's offering a college scholarship to the accuser regardless of whether she was telling the truth.

Despicable too was the failure of the liberal/leftist press to condemn Jackson's offer for what it was: an assault on truth and fairness.

Tom Bevan continues:

McCann brushes off the injustice suffered by the Duke lacrosse players with the trite phrase, "that's what can happen when you don't keep your nose clean."

This is a cowardly cop-out, not to mention McCann is invoking a standard that is unrealistic as well as unjust.

Does he mean anyone who attends a party where there is beer and strippers can be falsely accused of anything under the logic that attending the party in the first place isn't "keeping your nose clean?"

Setting aside the fact that three young men stand accused of a crime that could cost them the better part of their lives behind bars, the forty-four Duke players who have not been charged with committing any crime didn't deserve to have their reputations trashed and their season cancelled, or to be stigmatized and abandoned by the Duke faculty and university administration.

To suggest the players brought all this on themselves by the mere act of attending a party is more than grotesquely unfair, it's also a clever way to absolve those in the media and the community whose behavior toward the Duke players has been so shameful throughout this entire episode.

I understand it's difficult for some to focus on the facts in this case because the facts, at least at the moment, aren't very favorable toward the accuser.

As a result, this case is upsetting a whole host of traditional liberal stereotypes and tactics, not the least of which is a seemingly innate liberal reflex to attack white males as symbols of privilege and racial oppression whenever possible. (Bold added)

McCann's suggestion that the Duke players deserve the way they've been treated "even if the accuser's lying" shows just how warped that mentality can be and represents a new low point in the whole tragic saga.

Well said, Tom.

Now let's turn the floor over to Betsy Newmark.

Can anyone believe that this guy would write the same thing if it were 40 black players accused of raping a white woman and if all the known evidence showed that they were innocent.

Would Mr. McCann be so sure that it doesn't matter that these guys have had their reputations ruined and that they had lost the chance to play the sport they'd come to Duke to play?

Would he just say so self-righteously that the black players deserved whatever they got even if a white stripper was lying about what happened? [...]

I know that parents across the country have used the Duke lacrosse story as a salutary lesson to tell their college-age children to be more careful about their behavior and to avoid such situations. But, no one deserves to have his life turned upside down because some woman made up a story about what happened to her at the party. [...]

McCann, like all of his kind, has no idea he is what he is. Let's hope in time he'll learn and change.

It might help McCann to take a long look at some fine leaders like Durham Mayor Bill Bell and NC Central University Chancellor James Ammons. I can't see either of them buying into "even if the accuser's lying."

Meanwhile, isn't it wonderful to have access to bloggers like Betsy and Tom.

No wonder they're worried in the newsrooms.