There are a thousand important topics in this country that beg for discussion, debate, and consensus – real issues that would improve our security, advance the cause of liberty, promote the economy, and guarantee that the words contained in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution actually mean something.
The Duke rape case logs in around 975.
I place as much importance on this case as I do the disappearance of a pretty white girl in Mexico or perhaps the latest horror story about a pleasure cruise from hell. A story of local prosecutorial misconduct in a college town just doesn’t deserve the kind of “all in” news coverage on cable nets and the internet that this story received. In fact, if one were to look at the case honestly by stepping back, taking a deep breath, and thinking about it for 10 seconds, one would have to admit to themselves that it is just plain loony that this story got as much play as it did in the first place.
In fact, I would say that this story says a helluva lot more about what’s wrong with the news business, blogs, and people in general than it says about any overarching issues relating to the justice system, treatment of rape victims (real or otherwise), feminism, the objectification of women in a sports dominated culture, privilege and the law, and all the other sickeningly portentous “issues” that were supposedly raised by this case.
Yes, Mr. Nifong should go to jail. As should the accuser whose lies have made it more difficult for victims of rape to seek and receive justice. But Nifong is just a local pol who saw an opportunity for a high profile case to swing an election his way. If you don’t think this doesn’t happen all over America then you aren’t reading your local papers very often. Certainly there are few prosecutors who go to the extraordinary lengths that Mr. Nifong did in manufacturing a case. But he by no means is alone in seeking to use the justice system to advance a political career.
As for the rest of the story, we have college boys behaving badly – drinking and partying while paying $800 to an outcall service to have strippers come and perform. The fact that they were athletes on the not-so-famous Duke Lacross team shouldn’t have mattered. They could just have easily belonged to the astronomy club. And even if their behavior has now been shown not to have crossed the line of legality, does anyone really want to defend them as they leeringly cheered these women on, grasping, groping, even grabbing the strippers who from what I’ve read, had some moments of genuine fear for their safety? I’ve been to one or two parties like that and I can assure you that such displays do not do the male animal credit.
And before we start bemoaning the fate of the accused whose lives have now been “ruined,” let’s wait for the six figure offers to tell their story on film, in books, and on television. How far behind can a Barbara Walters Special be or appearances on Larry King Live? And does anyone want to take a stab at what the final settlement offer will be from the state, county, city, and individual officials – all of whom will be sued for a variety of reasons and where such an open and shut case will make these boys (who admittedly went through a year of hell) rich beyond avarice.
God help them if they’re brave enough to go on O’Reilly.
Bad prosecutor, bad boys, a lying rape victim – it just doesn’t add up to a story of national import. Ah! But beyond the story itself is the fact that the case presented an absolute golden opportunity for every Tom, Dick, and Mary of a special pleader to shove their face in front of a TV camera and scream for 15 minutes about issues with only the most tangential relevance to the case at hand.
Mind boggling to say the least. First up and most vociferous were the racialists who never miss an opportunity to obscure the facts in order to advance their hackneyed agenda. Here, as with the second most vocal outriders who latched on to the case for their own selfish ends – the feminists – the facts of the case didn’t matter as much as the power of the symbols involved; a black woman whose veracity was questioned by the “white power structure” and whose ordeal was being made worse by misogynistic white males. The racialists and the feminists should be given credit for total consistency. Even when evidenced emerged clearing the young men, they stuck to their guns and said the guilt or innocence of the boys didn’t matter, that the real issues were the ones they raised in the first place.
Beyond the race and gender harpies, there were the class warriors who pointed to the “privileged” nature of Duke as a private institution and, along with the “College Sports Culture Breeds Animals” advocates, joined hands in skewering Duke athletics in general as well as the entire college administration who reacted with such extraordinary weakness and groveling that a retrospective look at their performance should get the lot of them fired.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the relentless eye of the media; setting up shop in Durham for the duration, devoting hours and hours of coverage to timelines, leaks from defense lawyers, leaks from the prosecutor, and the contentious panel discussions about all the issues raised above and then some – a cacophony of noise, rumor, gossip, and speculation that made this story into the sickening display of media overkill that it eventually became.
The media navel gazing has already begun. Everything I’ve said above and more will be dutifully noted in columns and solemnly discussed on the media shows over the weekend. There will be angst-ridden pleas from media critics to stop the madness, that ‘we’re better than this – or at least we should be.” There will be editorials summing up for us what it all means and we’ll be hearing phrases like “rush to judgement” and “feeding frenzy” and “the media is to blame for this entire episode.” (Well, perhaps not that last one, but it fits, doesn’t it?)
Blogs like this one will waste a thousand or so words wondering why other blogs wasted so many words on a non story and others will take me to task for criticizing those who wasted the words in the first place.
And in the end, it will all be meaningless drivel. Take a good look, people. This is America at the beginning of the 21st century. A culture coarsened by a media – concentrated in fewer and fewer hands now – whose relentless drive for profit has created conditions where news isn’t what is happening everyday that impacts people’s lives but rather events or “stories” that can be told like a soap opera with good guys, bad guys, plot twists, and a commercial every 7 minutes. This is what we, the people, have wrought largely as a result of our complacency in the face aggressive corporate takeovers of one media outlet after another.
Fox News Group not only has TV stations but also newspapers around the world and a huge movie studio (not to mention radio stations, magazines, and internet portals). The same goes for every other international conglomerate who owns huge chunks of the media world. Perhaps a half dozen companies control almost all of the media content we are exposed to from sun up to sun down. And in a corporate culture that places a premium on how many eyeballs are glued to a particular station rather than the accuracy or viability of the news being reported, it becomes paramount for news to entertain first, then inform.
I can guarantee that within a month, the media will find the next story that they can serialize like a daytime drama. They will have learned nothing from the Duke rape case despite their caterwauling about lowered standards and the nature of the news biz.
It makes one wonder why I or anyone else should even bother.
UPDATE
I’ve already had to delete a half dozen comments for vulgarity and insulting language. Let’s keep it clean, please.
Also, this is not my brother’s blog. If you wish to comment on his post, please go to his site. Any comment not germane to this post will be deleted.
UPDATE II
Just a random observation about human beings…
If 5,000 people use the appellation “Moron” as a play on words regarding the last name “Moran” to describe me or my brother, do they ALL think they’re being funny? Do they believe they are being original in their humor – even when 4,999 commenters prior to their comment registering used the exact same play on words?
Fascinating…
7:37 am
Good blog and accurate, too, in the assessment of who controls what we see as news and how they’ll handle the Duke case’s aftermath. What’s worse is the inconceivably heavy coverage of the Ann Nicole Smith death/paternity “stories.” She was a D-list celeb. Why the obsessive coverage? FOX “news” has been the absolute worst on this, too. They’re crazy with it. (And probably won’t stop until they find a way to blame her death or the baby’s paternity on Bill Clinton.)
8:03 am
A really thought-provoking post, thanks.
I agree with a lot of what you say, particularly on the distateful role of the media in all of this (“This is America at the beginning of the 21st century. A culture coarsened by a media – concentrated in fewer and fewer hands now…” is spot on), but I disagree with your downplaying of the importance of the case. I think this is a bit more than simply “prosecutorial misconduct in a college town.” Nifong not only committed massive ethics violations, but also lied to the Court, broke the law, and disregarded the Constitution. Particularly egregious was the “critically flawed lineup”—an understatement if there ever was one—which only included Duke lacrosse players. I’m not lawyer, but it seems to me that, in order to conduct a lineup in that manner, you are either grossly unaware of criminal procedure or you deliberately sought to railroad the players. Moreover, I can’t in any satisfactory way reconcile why Nifong also withheld the exculpatory results of a DNA test from the defense, unless I conclude that the D.A. had it in for the players.
Does this happen all over the country? Perhaps. Does that make it any less appalling? No. Should I be less concerned because it happened to well-off families? I don’t think so. If this sort of egregious legal behavior happens all the time, we should be all the more outraged.
And while, like you, I disagree with a culture that on the one hand bemoans the “fate of the accused whose lives have now been ‘ruined,’” and on the other doles out six figure book and film offers, I, again, believe this shouldn’t take away a) from the injustice that was done, and b) the outrage I have over it.
Thanks again.
8:18 am
They’ve already got a sequel: the Imus story. I’m sick of hearing about that one already.
9:54 am
Angevin, the answer to your questions is simple. Nifong was up for election, in a racially imbalanced city, where the majority population was infuriated that a black woman was raped by white men and wanted their heads. in a different time and place they would have bene lynched by the mob. The actions of the DA were nothing more than cold political calculus and had nothing to do with justice for either party involved.
12:18 pm
I disagree. This story points out a wide spread problem – that too many officials in authority are more than ready to assume the worst of privelidged white males and the best of under-privelidged black females.
Racial/Gender/Class prejudices run rampant! Both the District Attourney and many of the Duke Faculty assumed the accusor was truthful and that the accused were guilty based only on their skin color, gender and financial circumstances.
In this case, the three victims will, as you predict, probably profit from their misfortune. The justice system worked for them, but it could just as easily not worked and it could just as easily not work for future victims in similar circumstances. Would it have turned out this well for middle-class white male defendants? The negative consequences of the system not working would be devastating for them (I say “them”, but it could be me or you or us).
12:45 pm
And Doug would be wrong. No worries though. That’s not all that abnormal in this case. Lots of people who don’t live here and don’t honestly know the case are jumping to a great many conclusions. Hell…he is even trying to make it sound like it never happens in reverse and taht there aren’t too many in power who assume the best of white people, the the worst of minorities…particularly Blacks and Middle Easterners.
middle class? oh my…he actually admited that the justice system is weighted in the favor of the rich.
1:20 pm
I have to admit I am disappointed in this posting. This might be typical of what happens but that doesnt make it a non story. Further, to say that they will be ok because they will now make money off selling their stories is as inappropriate here as it would have been saying to Rodney King hey dont mind the beating LA will give you a multi million dollar settlement. I understand that in the grand scheme this story may not be as big as it has become but it was pretty dang big to these three who faced prison and the disintegration of their lives. This story was the ultimate destination of America’s politics, race and class warfare used for political gain by a DA and political fodder by a media frenzy and a Duke faculty wanting verdict first trial later. This is what is truly wrong with the left, personal destruction is secondary to the “greater” principle and if these boys had to be sacrificed or any others have to be sacrificed then so be it.
3:02 pm
“A tale told by an idiot…”
Unfortunately, stories like this are what pass for news, provided they promote a certain agenda, yield, certain ratings or readership, etc.
This was one of the reason I quit blogging. After examining how events like this are reported, misreported, overreported – you name it – adding my two cents hardly seemed worth the effort any longer. No matter how infuriating some of this stuff may be, ultimately it has virtually no impact on our ongoing struggle to be decent people.
BTW, I hope you’re not getting blogger’s fatigue, Rick.
3:07 pm
racialists = racists.
there, fixed that for you. don’t let them off lightly.
3:48 pm
rick
what do you mean “within a month” the media will be on to the next story. Within a day or two at the most.
But first, the Duke story, the Imus story, the Anna Nicole story, will be re-visited again and again to be sure every last drop of media blood has been squeezed from them. Is it really any wonder that more and more people get their news from the internet, where they can look at what they want to, for as long as they want, as often (or not) as they want.
I may not whole-heartedly agree with everythhing in your post, but it made me stop and think. I like that.
And how in the world could anyone mistake your blog for Terry’s. Good Grief!
4:37 pm
So, because I didn’t mention the reverse situation, I “...make it sound like it never happens in reverse and taht there aren’t too many in power who assume the best of white people, the the worst of minorities…particularly Blacks and Middle Easterners”
I re-read my post and did not see that I wrote anything like what Tim in Raleigh attributed to me. You have to admire Tim’s mind reading powers. Would that I could determine a stranger’s thoughts based on what the stranger did not say.
Whoops, almost forgot to mention that indeed, the reverse does happen too often, and the negative consequences in those cases are just as devastating. Sorry Tim, I didn’t say so earlier. It’s just that this article is about the Duke rape case and I was simply heeding Mr. Moran’s plea to stay on topic.
6:45 pm
Tim in Raleigh says “it’s not like it doesn’t happen in reverse”.
What is that supposed to mean? That since it happens to poor black boys that makes it al OK and the travesty of justice that was this prosecution should just be ignored because they are “rich white boys”?
What would make this better is if Jesse Jackson came out and said he was wrong and he “misjudged” these young men. But you won’t hear that. And you won’t read the apology of the 88 professors from Duke that convicted these young men without a trial.
Had this been a white girl accusing three black atheletes and she was found to have been lying, she would be facing charges. But that ain’t gonna happen. Not as long as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have a breath left in them.
These men were treated unfairly and to make excuses for it because the are “rich” is just so much bull.
8:49 pm
What happened to these boys was wrong and nifong should be disbarred. The outrage over Imus overshadowed this injustice and thats too bad. I for one hope they do get book deals, ect. as I feel they deserve to get something for the outrageous thing that was done to them and their families.
No outrage from rev sharpton on this one … how hypocritical.
9:26 pm
Why not posts on your brother’s predicament.
As a new reader, one can see similar “Moran” traits in your own writings. Although you seem to be a lot smarter, there is the same condescension, the annoying know-it-all attitude, the same failure to grasp why people care about what they care about.
You brother is in danger of losing his job tonight (which although he deserves it, I hope it doesn’t happen).
That really says more about America in 2007 than your post.
9:36 pm
1. My brother can take care of himself.
2. I do know everything. And yes, you should feel lucky to be the beneficiary of my wit and wisdom.
3. The reason people care about this case has nothing whatsoever to do with its overall importance as a news story – which, of course, was the point of my entire piece.
Next time…read it and learn.
9:55 pm
Rick- I beg to differ on the first point.
And to bring up the real world.
But I would say you brother does need your help, right now.
Unless you think that someone who has apparently been avariously dedicated to career advancement in his own chosen field (bland newsreader and face of the network), can face the destruction of his career over a stupidly overopinionated, obnoxious blog post, without help from his family.
If you believe that, then, yeah, I guess you are correct.
10:49 pm
These young men can sue and can sue on the simple basis of having a medical condition now. A medical condition that was caused by a FALSE accusation. That medical condition is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Has nothing to do with thier race, wealth or childhood. It has everything to do with what happened to them and the trauma they have suffered for being FALSLEY accused.
11:53 pm
I will admit that I, too, came here to see how you were dealing with the subject that your brother wrote about in such a supercilious and ignorant way.
One question is being asked over and over on his blog, Rick: What would you do if your son were wrongly accused of rape? First, it’s a very fair question. Second, we all know he would do exactly what the parents of the Duke 3 did. He’d lawyer up with the best money could buy, right? Do you deny that? And do you think your nephew should be skewered in the press because his daddy could afford a decent attorney?
Omigosh, it’s the most hypocritical argument I’ve ever heard in my entire life! (Yeah, yeah, your brother can take care of himself. Well, I’m not asking you to ‘take care’ of him. I’m asking you to think seriously about whether or not you can support such a weak defense.)
Several commenters mentioned Lawrence—and the astronomical tuition at same. Sure made him look like a…mule. And one guy challenged him to swear he’d never watched a stripper while he was there. There was just something about that comment that made me think the commenter might have a little ‘inside info’. Nah. You guys are both perfect. I’m sure it was my imagination.
2:52 am
I agree with most of your post except I would log the Duke case in at around number 10,975. How can a politician/prosecutor gone bad story be worthy of any Illinoisan’s top 1000? Now a trustworthy politician story – that would be truly newsworthy.
9:21 am
[...] And, MOST IMPORTANT, there are many, many cases of prosecutorial misconduct across our country every year. The media covers few, if any, of these cases. Most of the victims in these cases are poor or minority Americans–or both. I would hate to say the color of their skin is one reason journalists do not focus on these victims of injustices perpetrated by police and prosecutors, but I am afraid if we ask ourselves the question honestly, we would likely find that it is. Look for a moment at what James Giles endured: Why does the failure of the justice system in once case make the failure of the justice system in another OK? they are both failures and should both be covered by the media and resolved. WAIT, I know Only the poor BLACK MAN can be innocent. the White man has to be guilty because there was slavery in America in the past we are all guilty. And the Media that Moran speaks of is the leftist socialists liberals. Terry is a racists, socialists, elitist from the left media. I am glad his brother is not. If the Media was better are presenting real stories and not glorifying these stories that match their view point then I might watch a little more. but not as it is. Said Michael @ Sat 14 April 2007 07:21 — Filed under: Politics — [...]
3:45 pm
A white crooked pol whipping up black hatred to win an election [Nifong had been appointed and was waging his first election—-I believe]—-that’s a bit different. And MSM legal mavens like Nancy Grace and Wendy Murphy shrieking on-air on the obvious guilt—-the presumption of guilt by the drive-by media—-the usual con-men like Sharpton chiming in—-don’t think that’s normal. And we benighted folks in Florida think Lacrosse is a big sport, as do other folks on the Atlantic Coast, and Duke has about the best program in the country. The cancellation of Duke’s season would be analogous to Notre Dame cancelling its football season would be to college football. A big deal to avid fans.
4:48 pm
One More Villain to the List…
Some of this information has dripped out elsewhere, but the News and Observer paints a comprehensive picture of the sad background of a deeply troubled woman and reveals a twisted portrait of criminal activity, disturbed behavior, and severe emotional …
6:46 pm
The Sixty Minutes piece is as damning a bit of TV journalism as I’ve ever seen on the tube. The three students behaved in a far more rational way than I would have. They deserve a big payback and I’d love to see a rogue prosecutor thrown in the state pen with the general inmate population.
That’s the punishment Nifong really deserves.
And a thundering silence continues on the 87 Duke tenured imbeciles who signed a petition calling for pitchforks and torches and a lynch-party.
Take Back the Night has demonstrated total cluelessness.