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Panel analyzes lax coverage
Audience challenges media's role, tense discussion ensues
Ashley Dean, The Chronicle, 10/23/06

A panel about the media's ongoing coverage of the lacrosse scandal sparked heated discussion between audience members and panel members at the School of Law Friday afternoon.

The panel, titled "Why rape allegations against men's lacrosse players became a national story on race, class and crime," included six members of the local and national media, as well as Duke Law Professor James Coleman, chair of the University committee that examined the lacrosse program last spring.

Moderator Frank Stasio, host of "The State of Things" on WUNC Radio, said the lacrosse story took on "American mythic proportions" soon after initial news coverage began.

Many audience members-including alumni, staff, bloggers and lacrosse players' parents who handed out buttons that read "Innocent until proven innocent"-said the media overemphasized issues of race, gender, class and privilege.

Several said the press presumed the guilt of the players following the exotic dancer's rape allegations last March.

"You screwed up the story," one audience member told the panelists.

Duke-Durham divide

Jerry Footlick, former senior editor of Newsweek and author of a book detailing how colleges deal with public crises, noted that the case became "a perfect storm" in the eyes of the media and the American public.

"This wasn't just a story about a woman claiming to be raped," said Susannah Meadows, Trinity '95 and senior writer for Newsweek.

The incident's divisive elements of race and class were immediately discernible, but the storyline was perpetuated following the national media's attention, said Bob Ashley, Trinity '70, editor of The Herald-Sun.

John Drescher, M.A. '88 and managing editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, said he felt his paper overemphasized the class issue, especially early in the case.

Senior Seyward Darby, 2005-2006 editor of The Chronicle and current editorial page managing editor, said the national media often sensationalized the alleged divisions on campus.

"The only thing that's truly dividing us right now is power lines from your trucks," Darby said she thought at the time about the media's presence on campus.

Meadows said a significant moment in the characterization of the case came when a student from North Carolina Central University told her that even if David Evans, Trinity '06, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were not guilty, they should go to jail to make up for past wrongs.

Role of media

Panelists also discussed the role some have said the media played in perpetuating the case and molding public opinion.

"I tend to think the media coverage on this whole thing has been what you'd expect," said Jay Bilas, Trinity '86 and J.D. '92 as well as an ESPN analyst. "It's an evolving story and you see minds change."

One audience member criticized the media for having had "the will to believe the lurid and false story in the beginning," though Meadows said Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's early actions may have unwittingly influenced reporters.

"I think what made this case so extraordinary is that you had a public official saying, 'I am sure this person has been raped,'" Meadows said. "We expect our public officials to know what they are talking about."

Bilas mentioned the large role bloggers have also played in the coverage of the case.

"Some of these blogs have gained their own credibility in investigating the investigation," he said.

An attendee said he was surprised by the "joviality and lightheartedness" of the discussion and asked whether the media has taken responsibility for lives ruined in the aftermath of the case.

"I don't take responsibility for the fall-out of a story," Stasio said. "But I do take responsibility for our coverage."

Ashley said he stands by the Herald-Sun's reporting, noting that the paper is one of the smallest news organizations, but one of the most heavily involved.

"Every single day we're reporting an incomplete version of events," he said. "There are a lot of chapters in this that have not yet been written."

Footlick said he doubts the case will make it to trial, but added that if it does and Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann are acquitted, he does not think their lives will have been ruined.

Representations of accuser and accused

Other attendees questioned the media's characterization of the accuser as the "victim," rather than the "alleged victim."

This thought was broached in the discussion when the mother of a member of the 2005-2006 lacrosse team took issue with Stasio's reference to the accuser as a survivor.

"Can you say 'alleged survivor?'" asked the mother, who wished to remain anonymous. "That's very different from saying 'survivor.'"

Coleman described the portrayal of the accuser and defendants as "asymmetrical," noting that the alleged victim's name has remained unreported, but the three indicted players have had their names and pictures splashed across television programs and the covers of national magazines.

One audience member asked why Newsweek's cover had included mug shots of the indicted players, but a later article about Nifong did not receive similar treatment. Meadows said she was not involved in the cover-shot decisions.

Meadows added that she too was disturbed by the unbalanced coverage in the media at times.

Audience response

The event, sponsored by the Duke Chronicle Alumni Network, Duke Magazine and the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, was the first in a two-part program discussing contentious topics in current media.

Although the audience members at the lacrosse panel did not all agree with the way the case was covered, many said they thought the panel provided insight into the media's role and representation.

"I thought the panel was excellent," said the lacrosse player's mother. "I didn't get to ask the other question I wanted, which was, 'Why is it sometimes so obvious certain newspapers are biased, even when they say they're not?'"

KC Johnson, writer of the Durham-in-Wonderland blog, noted on his website the panel's lack of a blogger. Darla Miles, a reporter with WTVD, Raleigh's ABC News affiliate, said she felt the discussion could have benefited from a representative from the local or national broadcast media.

"The local TV reporters, I believe, were in the throngs of it everyday," Miles said.

Though the audience members seemed largely in support of the team, some criticized the lack of coverage about Nifong's conduct. Drescher noted the Raleigh News and Observer has worked over the past three years to expose prosecutorial misconduct.

During the discussion, the lacrosse player's parents also said University officials told their sons not to tell anyone, including family, about the situation last March.

"We're all afraid for our boys," the mother said after the panel.

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