In the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, New York Times columnist Peter Applebome spoke out against the "socially conscious left" that was ready to convict the innocent Duke lacrosse players without evidence. Was fellow Times columnist Selena Roberts listening?
Applebome writes the "Our Towns" column for the Sunday Metro section, and talked to locals with connections to the Duke case for his latest offering, "After Duke Prosecution Began to Collapse, Demonizing Continued."
"The rape case that cost three Duke University lacrosse players a year of their lives and much more of their youth finally ended on Wednesday, when North Carolina Attorney General Roy A. Cooper said what many people have long known: all three were totally innocent of the charges against them.
"But since last week was one for pondering language and apology, here’s what those who know Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., Collin Finnerty of Garden City, on Long Island, and David Evans of Bethesda, Md., are wondering. How did college kids with no shortage of character witnesses become such a free-fire zone for the correct thinkers in academia, the news media and the socially conscious left?....I went to Duke and have a son there, so maybe I was predisposed to hear the scream. But by now only those who get a delicious, angry jolt just from hearing the words 'white male privilege' are not feeling a bit ill."
Applebome could have been referring to his own paper's misleadingly pro-prosecution coverage, and in particular the assumptions of guilt made by sports columnist Selena Roberts, who slimed the innocent Duke lacrosse players long after the false rape charges against them had collapsed, and the day before the North Carolina attorney general declared them innocent of all charges.
On March 25, Roberts sarcastically snarled at those with the temerity to defend the innocent players who were railroaded by rogue local prosecutor Michael Nifong:
"Don't mess with Duke, though. To shine a light on its integrity has been treated by the irrational mighty as a threat to white privilege....lay off the lacrosse pipeline to Wall Street, excuse the khaki-pants crowd of SAT wonder kids."
For more New York Times bias, visit Times Watch.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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My guess is that there will b
April 17, 2007 - 08:41 ET by GalvanicMy guess is that there will be few if any corrections, let alone apologies, from the MSMers, Duke faculty, and Leftist race-baiters. They made their high-decibel points in front of TV cameras and microphones, got all the mileage out of the case they could get, and will move on to the next headline, which until yesterday, was Don Imus.
The sickness afflicting their collective PC mentality --- and it is a sickness --- is that regardless of whether these young men were guilty of rape or not, there is a Greater Truth out there, and in this case, that Great Truth is that rich young white boys take advantage of poor black women.
The Duke case fit the template, and therefore facts were irrelevent. The condemnation and harassment inflicted upon them by the MSM and the Left (particularly the radicals), is rationalized as social justice --- a thinly-disguised euphemism for 'class war' in which individuals are pigeon-holed into categories and dealt with according to the transgression (past and present) of their class.
So, just as the GWers tend raise the specter of Hurricane Katrina (2005) while ignoring the below-average 2006 hurricane season (none hit the US), so will the Left ignore the innocense of the Duke lacrosse players and its own guilt in falsely condemning them.
There has been a cascade of s
April 17, 2007 - 09:00 ET by Gat New YorkThere has been a cascade of spinning by the most heinous of slanderers since these kids were pronounced innocent. Among them are Sharpton and Jackson.And now the NY Slime.They are not concerned about integrity they are concerned about the impending lawsuits for defamation of character that these families will be prosecuting.
After Al and Jesse!
April 17, 2007 - 09:00 ET by ChasvsThe MSM community will begin to apologize for their accusations right after Al and Jesse do! Or in other words, NEVER! Old news, they got it wrong, but you know, these boys are White and privilged, so they deserve to be punished for that alone!
The irreplaceable Thomas Sowe
April 17, 2007 - 09:45 ET by Michael ChapmanThe irreplaceable Thomas Sowell has a good column (below) on the Duke case, also posted on Townhall.com.
A Gutless Lynch Mob
By Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Just before the Attorney General of North Carolina appeared on television to announce his decision on the Duke University "rape" case, one of the many expert TV legal commentators said that Attorney General Roy Cooper would probably use the words "insufficient evidence" but not the word "innocent" in dismissing the case.
As it turned out, the Attorney General did use the word "innocent," saying that he and his staff considered the accused students innocent. It was the only decent thing to do.
Anything less would have let the ugly accusation follow them for life and, years from now, when all the details of this sordid story have long since been forgotten, hang over their heads with a suspicion that they got off on some legal technicality.
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, there was a lynch mob atmosphere against the accused students -- from the Duke University campus to the national media, and including the local NAACP and the ever-present Jesse Jackson.
These were affluent white male students and a poor black woman accusing them of rape. For those steeped in the new sacred trinity of "race, class, and gender," what more did you need to know, in order to know which side to come out on?
Duke University suspended the students when charges were filed, cancelled the entire remaining schedule of the lacrosse team for which they played, and got rid of the coach. Former Princeton University president William Bowen -- a critic of college athletics -- and the head of the local NAACP were called in to issue a report, which complained that Duke had not acted fast enough.
Meanwhile, 88 members of the Duke faculty took out an ad in the campus newspaper denouncing racism. Among other things, the ad said, "what is apparent everyday now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism."
As for the demonstrations and threats loudly voiced by some local blacks, in the wake of the accusations against the Duke lacrosse students, the ad said:
"We're turning up the volume in a moment when the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down while we wait. To the students speaking individually and to the protesters making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourself heard."
This year, after all the charges have collapsed like a house of cards, the campus lynch mob -- including Duke University president Richard H. Brodhead -- are backpedalling swiftly and washing their hands like Pontius Pilate.
They deny ever saying that the students were guilty. Of course not. They merely acted as if that was a foregone conclusion, while leaving themselves an escape hatch.
It is bad enough to be part of a lynch mob. It is worse to deny that you are part of a lynch mob, while standing there holding the rope in your hands.
What is even more important than clearing the names of the three young men charged with a heinous crime is making sure that the man responsible for this travesty of justice -- District Attorney Michael Nifong -- pays the fullest price for what he did.
The state bar association investigating Nifong needs to understand that this case is much bigger than Nifong.
If prosecutors can drag people through the mud and keep felony charges hanging over their heads, long after all the evidence says the opposite of what they were charged with, then any of us, anywhere, can be put through a living hell whenever it suits the whim or the political agenda of a district attorney.
Much was made of the fact that these Duke students came from affluent families. Lucky for them -- and for all of us. Not everyone has an extra million dollars lying around to fight off false accusations. Their fight is our fight.
This case will send a message, one way or another, to prosecutors across the length and breadth of this country. Either you can get away with dragging people through hell without a speck of evidence -- and in defiance of other evidence -- or you can't.
This case has already sent a message about the kinds of gutless lemmings on our academic campuses, including our most prestigious institutions.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.