Media experts examine rape case coverage
BY GREGORY PHILLIPS : The Herald-Sun, Oct 20, 2006 : 11:21 pm ET
DURHAM -- A panel of local and national media leaders turned the magnifying glass on themselves at the Duke University School of Law Friday examining coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape case and how it grew into a national story about race, gender, class and privilege.
Writers, editors, broadcasters and a Duke professor discussed the reporting of rape accusations made by an exotic dancer against three Duke lacrosse players at an off-campus team party in March and why it took on what moderator and WUNC radio host Frank Stasio called "American mythic proportions."
District Attorney Mike Nifong's early visibility and insistence a rape had occurred, coupled with his looming re-election campaign, plus Duke's reputation, all fueled the explosion of the story, according to the panelists.
"This wasn't just about a woman saying she was raped," said Susannah Meadows, of Newsweek magazine.
Still, Duke Law professor James Coleman Jr., chairman of Duke's lacrosse review committee, said he "didn't think it would be anything like it turned into."
John Drescher, managing editor of The News & Observer of Raleigh, said race and class had nothing to do with his paper's coverage, which he said was focused on divining the details of "what happened that night."
Bob Ashley, editor of The Herald-Sun, said racial caricatures depicting an elite university in a poor town surfaced once the national media got involved.
"To several of the networks, that was the storyline that took hold and that was what exacerbated what went on," he said.
Seyward Darby, editor of Duke's student newspaper, The Chronicle, said that when news of the lacrosse case broke, portrayals of a campus split along racial lines amounted to assumptions made for sensationalism's sake.
"That was really troubling to us," she said, adding that she told TV crews at the height of the coverage that "the only thing that's truly dividing our campus right now is your power lines to your satellite trucks."
Meadows, a Duke graduate, defended the race angle in national coverage.
"The fact is there are race issues -- I remember them when I was here," she said. "The fact is, there's not a lot of interaction."
Meadows said a comment she heard by an NCCU student that the players should go to jail even if they weren't guilty "struck me as kind of a big deal and as being at the heart of a lot of the sentiment around this."
Attorney, ESPN sports commentator and former Duke basketball player Jay Bilas said public fervor over the case's racial aspect was whipped up by opinion segments on 24-hour news channels that do little to distinguish between factual reporting and on-screen debate.
Two lacrosse players' parents, who wouldn't give their names but said they sat on Coleman's review committee, claimed the university initially told the players not to tell their parents about the incident.
The case represented a perfect storm for Duke according to Jerry Footlick, former senior editor of Newsweek and author of a book on how universities meet public crises.
Footlick said he felt Duke wanted to be open about the case but "had no control over the facts. You just didn't know what was true, and that was a serious problem." Duke President Richard Brodhead "seemed to have been caught not knowing how hard to be or how soft to be," Footlick added.
The alleged victim's name has gone unreported in all the media outlets represented on the panel. Asked if that should continue to be the case, Ashley said he could see the pendulum swinging back toward naming accusers, as was usually the case until the 1970s.
"I find myself watching the circle come back around, and I'm not really sure where the truth lies on this," he said.
Drescher admitted to an unfair emphasis on the players' backgrounds in some early stories and not being careful enough with descriptions of the dancer as an accuser or victim. Ashley said The Herald-Sun should have been quicker to aggressively examine the competency of the investigation, while Darby said she wished The Chronicle had used its student status to get more access to the players and other figures involved.
Footlick said the frustration in the crowd and elsewhere suggested media outlets had been doing something right.
"The one thing that all journalists know on a controversial issue is if both sides hate you, you're being fair," he said.
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* Precious and the journalists have a lot in common.