Media Circus Goes Wild

Last week, a group of white lacrosse players at Duke University were accused of raping, sodomizing, robbing, kidnapping, and strangling a local African-American college student who had been hired as a dancer at one of their parties. In the following days, several national media outlets covered the story, and Duke turned into a full-fledged circus. Reporters swarmed Durham, N.C., articles flooded newspapers, the region was blanketed in extensive television coverage, and vigils and protests abound in the state. District Attorney Michael Nifong has not helped the situation and has exacerbated the atmosphere by making public inflammatory remarks about the players.

Ultimately, this case is solely about an alleged rape. As in any crime, the defendants deserve a trial by a jury in which they are innocent until proven guilty.

Instead of examining the most basic aspects of the case, the media has refocused the debate on racial issues, class issues, town-gown issues, and collegiate athletic issues. While all these factors may ultimately be important in this case, and are certainly pertinent to Raleigh-Durham and the nation, the manner in which the media has portrayed the case has allowed these secondary issues to overshadow the facts of the case.

A recent New York Times article, for example, contained allegations that the members of the lacrosse team had been spotted at a local bar on a recent Saturday night (while vigils were occurring on campus) and that the coach had scheduled a practice which had caused the players to miss a course over a professor’s objections. These issues, while imprortant in the world of college sports, are unrelated to the case at hand.

Rape and sexual assault are clearly very large problems in America, and we do not mean to trivialize the plight of the woman in question. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a woman is raped every two minutes in the U.S.. This is a startling statistic, adding up to over 209,880 victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault in 2004, according to the 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey. These attacks occur under many different circumstances and against a variety of different people of all backgrounds, ages, and classes. But in this case, the issues of background and class are secondary to the crime itself.

The Duke players are innocent until proven guilty—not the other way around. The entire team, university, and city are facing unreasonable scrutiny for the alleged actions of a few. The sensationalism brought on by the media and the District Attorney must die down, and life at Duke should be allowed to return to normal for all but the parties directly involved.