Where were you when you heard/read – OMG, a poor innocent girl has been raped by a buncha eeeevil rich white boys over at Duke !!!!
That Lacrosse team party was held at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd nine years ago – March 13, 2006. The story did not break globally until several days later. If I have anything to say about it, it will never be forgotten. “It” being the monumental journalistic travesty perpetrated by McClatchy’s News & Observer.
Nine years and no formal apology from McClatchy. Nine freakin’ years! One might get the feeling there never will be…. and that a similar travesty could happen any day. Duke Lacrosse Scandal – NEVER FORGET !!!
Why do I blame McClatchy? For the same reason I blame McClatchy and Rob RielleWHO Christensen for that other journalistic travesty involving John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. They were the primary media of record.
Rob, if you are reading this, Rielle Hunter was John’s campaign videographer (wink, wink) and sweetie-on-the-side. Since you (Rob) were imbedded in the Edwards’ campaign you likely saw her around (wink, wink). That Rob is WHO Rielle is.
McClatchy’s N&O a/k/a The Old Reliable was the primary media source of record for both Duke Lacrosse Scandal and John & Rielle Scandal. Their home office and staff were “right here” where both scandals took place. Ergo, media from around the world utilized their boots-on-the-ground accounts, background info and editorials as the foundations for their own reporting. If those reports and editorials reeked of an ideological bias and an OBVIOUS pre-determined agenda…. then that bias / agenda spread like an Ebola virus around the world. …… and, of course, their reporting DID reek of bias and a pre-determined agenda.
NOTE: A difference between the two scandals is that with John & Rielle, there was a national media horde following that campaign. Not all of whom were as enamoured with John as Rob was.
It quickly became obvious to everyone BUT ROB that John & Rielle were much more than videographer and candidate. The world media ran with the story while “award-winning newshound” Rob busied himself researching why Harvey Gantt lost to Jesse Helms or how Jim Hunt prefers his eggs in the morning. Rob being a noted political historian don’t you know. Two weeks AFTER the sordid details of the John & Rielle Scandal broke around the world, the N&O’s embedded award-winning reporter reported …. maybe there was a little something irregular in their relationship. And, with that Rob’s chances of being President Edwards’ press secretary went “POOF”. ….. OK, back to Duke Lacrosse.
This is the 8th Anniversary piece I have done on this. Next year will be the 9th and so on and so on.
The primary co-conspirators in McClatchy’s now quite infamous Journalistic Travesty were Executive Editor Melanie Sill and her News Editor Linda Williams. ‘Twas Ms Williams of the AfAm persuasion, in case you were curious, who immediately demanded her staff refer to Crystal Gale Mangum as “….. honor student and single mother of two”.
Said “honor student…. single mother” was also a contract employee with Bunny Hole Entertainment Corp.
For the record: Crystal Gale Mangum is now ….. a convicted murderer and single mother of lord knows how many. Crystal having since done in one of her boyfriends with a butcher knife in a bathtub. Sounds like a Derm version of Clue. Her supposed status as “an honor student” at NCCU prompted Rev Jesse Jackson to declare to The World he would be sending a check to cover her college costs. It’s been nine years and No Check Yet From Jesse. Bet that surprises you, huh?
Melanie and Linda went Yeeee-Haaa & Yippee when the first police reports came in. Lordy Lordy girl friend we got us a sure-fired Pulitzer here! Visions of John Grisham’s Time To Kill book and movie danced in their heads. ….. we got us a gang of rich white boys (several of whose parents lived “on golf course cul-de-sacs” with other rich white folks). They actually sent N&O reporters to the NYC-area homes to verify they were on golf course cul-de-sacs and duly reported same with extreme self-righteousness.
If you know any eeevil rich white folks who live around golf courses consider yourself duly warned by The N&O. That means YOU at North Ridge CC, Governors Club and Hope Valley among others.
Within 72 hours the McClatchy /N&O strategy for how they intended to cram this square peg into their round-hole agenda was in motion. Holy Claude Sitton, Batman. They had just been handed THE #1 Civil Rights Story of The New Millenium. Move over Rosa Parks and James Meredith, here comes Crystal Gale Mangum “….. honor student and single mother of two”.
You know the rest. Nifong became a verb for total judicial incompetence. I challenge you to find anyone named Nifong in any phone book in America, assuming there still ARE any phone books in America. Anyone who shared that name quickly changed it. Would you liked to be asked a dozen times a day hey, you kin to that jackass DA in Derm? I mean Really!
The N&O turned its full arsenal of muck-raking columnists loose on those rich white boys including but not limited to Barry “The Colonel” Saunders, Ruth Sheehan, Rob (of course) and Editorial Editor Steve “Whiffenpoof” Ford and his honcho Jimmy Jenkins.
Truth eventually leaked out despite the N&O saturation blast otherwise, and Ruth Sheehan drew the short straw. Well actually the short straw was drawn for her by McClatchy’s suits. It was decided that Ruth would do a mea culpa a/k/a fall on her sword (“not as might as the pen”) and apologize for one column she wrote early on demanding the other rich white boys on the team come forth and admit what the perpetrating rich white boys had done that night.
After a reasonable period of time passed, Ruth resigned to go to law school with aspirations to become an advocate for the disenfranchised…. ergo NOT rich white boys.
That would be it as far as any “oops” from Fortress McClatchy. Barry couldn’t be blamed because…. well that just wouldn’t do. Barry being untouchable for the same reason Linda Williams was untouchable. Linda would later be quietly reassigned and then quietly zapped.
Executive Editor Melanie Sills was quietly shipped off to McCatchy’s HQ in Sacramento and later resigned to do something at some West Coast J-School where she would not likely be labeled ….. aren’t you the numbnutz who engineered that incredible journalistic travesty with the Duke Lacrosse Scandal?
Steve “Whiffenpoof” Ford has since retired to who knows where doing who cares. His little honcho Jimmy Jenkins still haunts the almost deserted halls of The N&O now playing Sancho Panza to Ned Barnett’s Don Quixote. Their uber-biased editorial droppings still grace the few pages still being printed by the once-proud, now disgraced newspaper.
And of course RobRielleWHO is as self-righteously arrogant and ideologically-blind as ever.
That house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd in Derm was demolished a few years ago. Neighbors say about this time each year, late at night, they swear they can still hear the whoopin’cries of Melanie Sill and Linda Williams ……
Lordy Lordy girl friend…. we got us a Pulitzer fer sure!
9th Anniversary of Duke Lacrosse …… ‘til this time next year. Never Forget!
OK, so tell me again why you still subscribe to The N&O, if indeed you still do?
