Some people are saying the gross overcoverage of the phony JonBenet suspect is the worst embarrassment for the press in recent memory. Worse than the Katrina incomeptence? Worse than the Valerie Plame non-story? Then, there is this, another strange lapse from one of the formerly great newspapers:
Imagine you are the world's most powerful newspaper and you have invested your credibility in yet another story line that is falling apart, crumbling as inexorably as Jayson Blair's fabrications and the flawed reporting on Saddam Hussein's supposed WMD. What to do?
If you're the New York Times and the story is the alleged gang rape of a black woman by three white Duke lacrosse players—a claim shown by mounting evidence to be almost certainly fraudulent—you tone down your rhetoric while doing your utmost to prop up a case that's been almost wholly driven by prosecutorial and police misconduct.
Nothing much happened in the JonBenet followup except that a lot of time and money were wasted, and a pathetic figure got his 15 minutes of fame. Real lives are being destroyed in the Duke case.
Comments
I'd say Judith Miller specifically and the credulous coverage of the supposed Iraqi threat generally caused damage several orders of magnitude greater than the craptacular tabloid coverage of things like Jonbenet, the Duke rapists, the run away bride, and any number of tragic stories involving young white women.
I still find it quite hilarious that Cheney would give info to Judith Miller to report as an anonymous source and then he would turn around in public and site Miller's stories as confirmation of his public positions. This administration has NO ETHICS - much like the local party given recent events...
And not to sound like a puritan - but those Duke players - at an absolute minimum - should have thought twice (or once, even) before hiring in strippers for their beer bash.
There would be much less potential for trouble if they either went to a strip joint (if they really and truly had the need to part with their money to see some uncovered breasts) or rented some dirty movies.
For people matriculating at an elite institution, these guys showed themselves to be exceptionally stupid. And not for nothing, I think the DA was compelled to aggressively press this case, given that those "real lives" of the Duke dunderheads are fully stocked with second and third and fourth chances; as opposed to the telling a down and out alleged victim to go to hell