"...Of course, it was hard to keep straight what facts the prosecution was alleging.See also:The accuser made up so many stories about the incident that the Times was forced to offer her Jayson Blair's old position." - Ann Coulter
Posted on 01/17/2007 3:44:55 PM PST by Bulldawg Fan
Stuart Taylor Jr., the liberal but brilliant legal reporter for the National Journal, described the New York Times' coverage of the Duke lacrosse rape case as "(w)orse, perhaps, than the other recent Times embarrassments." For a newspaper that carries Maureen Dowd's column, that's saying something.
As the Times' most loyal reader, this came as welcome news. I had briefly suspected the Times was engaging in fair reporting of the alleged rape case at Duke University. Taylor's article documenting the Times' massive misrepresentations restored order and coherence to my world.
The first part of the story -- the lie part -- was angrily reported in the Times. But as the accuser's story began to unravel, the Times gave only a selective account of the facts, using its famed lie-by-omission technique.
Among the many gigantic omissions from the Times' pretend-balanced article ("Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers") is the fact that the only remaining particulars about the case that are not completely exculpatory come from a memo by Sgt. Mark Gottlieb -- written four months after the alleged incident.
Gottlieb, the lead investigator on the alleged rape case, took no contemporaneous notes when he interviewed the accuser, but rather waited for the facts to come in -- and his case to be falling apart -- to write a memo recalling her statements during that initial investigation. The statements he recalled were surprisingly favorable to the prosecution!
The only problem with his memo, besides being preposterous on its face, is that it is contradicted by the contemporaneous notes taken by other people involved in the investigation. Indeed, the only thing Gottlieb's memo was consistent with were the facts as the prosecution was then alleging them.
Of course, it was hard to keep straight what facts the prosecution was alleging. The accuser made up so many stories about the incident that the Times was forced to offer her Jayson Blair's old position.
The Times "No Answers" article gave no indication that Gottlieb's memo was written four months after the alleged rape, but rather refers to it as the policeman's "case notes," falsely suggesting the notes were taken during the investigation and not after the frame-up.
Beginning with the strongest invented evidence from Gottlieb's "case notes," the Times reported that the nurse who examined the alleged rape victim told Gottlieb that the "blunt force trauma" seen in the examination "was consistent with the sexual assault that was alleged by the victim."
Or at least that's what Gottlieb wrote four months after talking to the nurse. It's not what the nurse wrote the night she examined the accuser. To the contrary, the only sign of physical trauma the nurse noted in her written report immediately after examining the accuser were some superficial scratches on the woman's knee and heel.
Indeed, in all 24 pages of the report prepared by doctors and nurses who examined the accuser the night of the alleged rape, there is no mention of any "blunt force trauma" or any injuries other than the scratches.
Also contradicting Gottlieb's hindsight memo were the notes taken by another policeman during their interview with the accuser -- not four months later -- saying she described her assailants as "chubby," with a "chubby face" and weighing "260-270" pounds.
That description fit none of the eventual defendants -- whom she repeatedly failed to pick out of photo lineups until Gottlieb finally gave up and presented her with a photo lineup of only Duke lacrosse players, to ensure that she couldn't guess wrong.
But according to Gottlieb's hindsight memo, the accuser described one of her rapists as "baby-faced, tall, lean" -- just like one of the actual defendants!
In repeatedly citing Gottlieb's after-the-fact memo as if it were the Rosetta stone of the case, the Times also neglected to mention Gottlieb's dark history with Duke students.
Gottlieb repeatedly jailed Duke students charged with minor infractions such as carrying an open beer or playing loud music, often throwing them in cells with violent criminals. He was not so tough on nonstudents, releasing one caught with marijuana and a concealed .45-caliber handgun.
A review of Gottlieb's record published in the Durham News & Observer showed that, in the previous year, when he patrolled an area that included both a "crime-ridden" public housing project and Duke off-campus housing, he arrested 20 Duke students and only eight nonstudents. During that same period, the three other officers in that district arrested two Duke students and 61 nonstudents.
At this point, Gottlieb's memo is the linchpin of the prosecution's case, and every single other fact in the case exonerates the defendants.
I mention all this to point out the Alice-in-Wonderland quality of the Times Jan. 15 editorial titled "Politicizing Prosecutors." The editorial had nothing to do with lunatic Southern prosecutors like Mike Nifong, Barry Krischer and Ronnie Earle threatening to put innocent people in prison for being Republican or "privileged white males."
No, the Times was upset because the law allows President Bush to fill vacant U.S. attorney slots with temporary replacements. The Times is enraged that Bush may be choosing prosecutors he likes, rather than prosecutors Sen. Dianne Feinstein likes, for these interim appointments.
If Bush were choosing the most hack, unprincipled, out-of-control Republican Party operatives for these temporary U.S. attorney positions, they could not match the partisan witch-hunts of the prosecutors and policemen the Times lies to defend.
We'll definetely be watching.
"That would be an insult to community colleges.."
I know you are joking, but the reality is that for a majority of undergraduate students, aside from the hollow nameplate and window decal for mom's car, there is no great reason for attending a so-called elite university.
There are numerous good community colleges often staffed by a real-world, practical faculty, who might actually also hold down another, honest job.
And a lacrosse player (none of the indicted) is already suing Duke (not for a large sum). Can't remember the details.
Hey, if you guys are enjoying the usual formidable exposition of facts by the redoubtrable Miss Coulter, than I trust you've read her book Treason, in which she completely dissembles the mythology of the evil Joe Mc Carthy, rabid accusser of the innocent Hollywood elite.
Conservatives, even many freepers, still accept that foundation of liberal dogma, as truth.
He made a non-comment comment shortly after it broke because people were hounding him to say something.
I do know and guarantee you that if it had been Duke basketball players accused a lynch mob would have been formed that night. Not for the players, but the accuser!
And no way K would have been fired.
One of the players is suing because he believes a feminist professor gave him a failing grade because he is a lacrosse player.
At times there are brief bio's of any given coach on sports broadcasts. Invariably a statement will be made to the effect that the coach is dedicated to the students, wants them to succeed, blah blah blah. I will remember that in the future. I guess Coach K only stands up for BB players, others can just go to hell.
I think you're onto something here.
Instead of bleeding money, The Times could pay their "reporters" four days pay while writing five days of "news" articles.
"...Of course, it was hard to keep straight what facts the prosecution was alleging.See also:The accuser made up so many stories about the incident that the Times was forced to offer her Jayson Blair's old position." - Ann Coulter
Very good read, sure, but, well, you know . . .
TS
("Ann Coulter" and "No Clothes". Yeah, as if!!)
Nor the under privileged Federal Judge the under privileged tenured professor runs to, if the administration dares to look cross-eyed at their actual nonperformance.
Thats it. Couldn't remember. And now that you jogged my memory, I think he has a pretty solid case as the University Admin made the Prof change his grade to a much better one because she couldn't justify the F.
I wonder if Coach K would like to be coach of the basketball team at Benley College.That is where the Duke lacrosse coach ended up.At Duke he had been in line for a national championship.
The biggest real-world reason for attending an elite institution is the connections it gives. That's just the way it is...
He's at Bryant University in RI.
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