Last year I was one of a handful of people to declare, not on this site, but my primary blog, that the Duke rape case was an exercise in mass hysteria. I recall a post here about a 'call to action' and demands that 'they not get away with it.' That post and one or two others made it to the recced list.
Where is the counter response on this site with a Mea Culpa to the innocent Duke players? Yes, I use the term innocent because the Attorney General of North Carolina used that term.
I am not looking to start a fight, but there were some serious bashing posts last year stating that the players deserved their treatment. The white male jock bashing was nothing short of disgusting. It felt like an exercise in mass psychological relief in some part.
This is what I wrote on my primary blog on April 18, 2006:
The lense through which this case is viewed by those people has made me want to pull my hair out. Why are they focusing on this case so much? Is this the new Hollowell story for this year? Nancy Grace was on Imus this morning and all but ready to string up the defendants. She made a mild comment about this is all alleged still. However, her diatribe was anything but fair or balanced. I have only a passing knowledge of who she is, but her comments made me sick. The thing is I DON'T KNOW what happened that night and no one else in media or blogsphere does either. But that doesn't stop rampant speculation.
All I know is there are two students who have had their mug shots plastered all over the media all day and that they have been suspended from school. Everything attached to their names right now says 'alleged rapist.' When this is all over, what happens if they are found not guilty? Will the media show their faces again with captions of 'innocent' under them? Will the university allow them to make up the time they missed and become juniors? If they are guilty then none of that matters, but if they aren't then how does the media feeding frenzy, this rush to judgment, repair those lives. Does, "oops" cover it?
I disagree with the assessment on MSNBC: How the Duke players got their reputations back.
Will Newsweek print a cover with 'Innocent' plastered on the front? Where are all the columnists who took Duke and its lacrosse team to the woodshed to say, "I deeply apologize for rushing to judgment."
It seems the Imus mess is the perfect mirror to reflect back on the Duke case. Imus made stupid racist remarks about the Rutgers team. MSNBC has removed him from their schedule over this. He has apologized repeatedly for what he said.
Where are all the apologies for what was said for three INNOCENT white Duke lacrosse players? Do they ever get their lives back?