Unrelated Update (2/3): I may blog more about the Long Beach hate crime beating trial next week. A group of black teenagers brutally beat three white women on Halloween Night — merely because they were white. I read that one of the women has to have surgery to realign an eye socket. Good grief.
This LA Weekly story is rather interesting.
Feel free to discuss the case on this thread. More later…
(Photo: Reed Saxon – AP)
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I like smart people dedicated to doing good things, like investigating and blogging the railroading of innocent men accused of gang rape.
KC Johnson has run circles around so-called journalists writing about the Duke “rape” case. If I weren’t already a blogger and wanted to start a blog, I’d create a site focused on one issue the way KC has. It’s one of the best ways to build expertise and credibility, and you become the go-to person on that topic. KC has made quite a space for himself out here in the crowded blogosphere, and I’d advise all of you would-be bloggers to think long and hard about creating a single-issue niche blog, rather than one covering multiple and general topics.
The blogosphere has grown exponentially since I started in late 2003, and it’s more difficult to stand out from the crowd. Dedicating your time and energy to one hot issue or topic will help you establish expertise in that area, and bloggers will link to you because you’re valuable.
I finally got the chance to read KC’s op-ed in the New York Post, where he mocks the New York Times for its self-righteous editorial on the value of DNA. NYT, as many Duke “rape” case followers already know, is one of the liberal newspapers that parroted Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong’s and the Durham Police Department’s version of events.
Although NYT had nothing to say about the lack of DNA in the Duke case, it lectures the rest of us about the value of DNA in other cases. In “The True State of C.S.I. Justice” (free reg. req.), NYT intones (emphasis added):
It’s clearly time for these grim showcase states to join the half-dozen pioneering states that have created what are termed innocence commissions…These respected authorities try to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions and propose changes to improve the state of justice. Calls to create commissions in New York and Texas are bogged down in statehouse politics, even as a half-dozen other states are poised to create their own monitors…No one knows the depth of injustice hinted at by DNA exonerations. But it is clear that they demand organized oversight and serious reforms of the criminal justice system.
“Powerful recommendations,” KC writes, “Yet time and again over the past 10 months, Times reporters and columnists have acted just like the Texas prosecutors the paper’s editorialists condemn.”
He notes that NYT, like other liberal newspapers, provided slanted coverage of the Duke case from the beginning, disregarded the stripper-accuser’s multiple versions of events, and essentially ignored the lack a DNA connection between the three indicted men and the stripper-accuser.
KC writes (emphasis added):
This is also the same New York Times whose editors watched silently last month, as Dr. Brian Meehan admitted that he and Nifong had entered into an agreement to intentionally withhold exculpatory evidence. His lab’s tests, Meehan testified in open court, discovered that samples taken from the accuser contained the DNA of between two and four unidentified males – and nothing from any lacrosse player. This finding was never reported to the defense…Meehan’s revelations prompted widespread demands for Nifong’s removal from the case; some editorial boards, appropriately, urged that the charges be dropped altogether. Times editors, on the other hand, ignored Meehan’s testimony. [NYT] Columnists Araton and Roberts likewise were silent.
Not to pump up bloggers too much, but where would this Duke case be at this point if not for the work of dedicated bloggers like KC? I am convinced the blogosphere played a big part in smashing Nifong’s house of cards. Certain mainstream media journalists wanted the white men to be guilty; they wanted to rally around the poor oppressed black woman who had to take off her clothes and perform sexual favors to feed her kids. They were tired of the usual crime stories, and the Duke “rape” case titillated them.
Some newspapers that slanted coverage toward the prosecution made amends by calling for Nifong’s head; the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times come to mind.
Better late than never, as they say. 
Case status: The N.C. Attorney General’s Office has taken over the Duke case. The February 5 hearing, where the stripper-accuser was scheduled to take the stand, has been postponed. Nifong is preparing to defend himself against ethics charges.
More Duke blogging: The Johnsville News (bookmark this site and check it daily for links to the latest Duke case news), LieStoppers (esp. Edwards Hires Hoax Apologist to Run Campaign Blog, where I’m mentioned – Could I turn this tidbit into a blog swarm?), Crystal Mess, John in Carolina…
Related posts:
- Reade Seligmann: “Mom, she picked me.”
- Duke Rape Case: The Bloggers
- Salaciousness Sells
- Duke Rape Case: You Talking About Me?
- Journalist Says Lacrosse Women “Ignorant” for Supporting Accused Lacrosse Players
