Today is the anniversary of the party held at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. at a house rented by three Duke lacrosse players. We all know what happened later. And we all know that the charges were a hoax from the start, the police and the district attorney acted recklessly, unprofessionally and unethically. The fallout continues.
But how did The News & Observer mark the anniversary? With a column by race columnist Barry Saunders that still gives equal weight to the accuser’s story and the undeniable and exculpatory facts that have come out since the original allegations were made. Saunders ridicules the lacrosse players’ version of events, which has been supported by mountains of evidence, while still taking seriously the accuser’s version of events:
Again, depending upon whom you believe, March 13 was the day a couple of strippers forced their way into a Bible study meeting at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. and forced members of the Duke lacrosse team to watch as they gyrated. Or it’s the day a stripper who went by the name Precious said three men sexually assaulted her as she tried to dance her way through college.
This is typical Saunders. I’m surprised he didn’t allege that the party was organized by Michael Bolton or Yanni, his two traditional white-man foils. The only thing missing today was any reference to his past incarcerations and brushes with the law, which he uses frequently, apparently to bolster his street cred.
Meanwhile, next to Saunders’ space-waster is a feature photograph of … a lacrosse player enjoying the warm weather yesterday. For a newspaper that has never given the sport the time of day (it’s never mentioned in The N&O‘s spring sports preview) this can’t be a coincidence. But for lacrosse fans, like myself, we’ll take it. I mentioned nearly a year ago that, in a perverse way, the Duke lacrosse case would be good for the game. Already it’s been on TV more this spring than ever before, and now newspapers are photographing lacrosse players for warm-weather shots instead of sunbathers.
Meanwhile, Duke’s Coach Mike Krzyzewski has criticized the university, notably the infamous Group of 88, for not supporting the players at the beginning of this saga:
“We had almost 100 professors come out publicly against certain things in athletics,” Krzyzewski told Costas, “and I was a little bit shocked at that. But it shows that there’s a latent hostility or whatever you want to say towards sports on campus. I thought it was inappropriate, to be quite frank with you.”
Some are criticizing Coach K’s late entry into the issue, but I see nothing to criticize. He is not Dukes athletic director. He has no administrative duties with respect to anything but basketball. Support should have come from AD Joe Alleva. When it counted, he wasn’t there.
