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NATIONAL
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Duke Rape Case: '60 Minutes' Failed Fairness Test
by Cash Michaels
Special to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal
DURHAM, N.C. (NNPA) – There is no question that the recent two-part expose’ on the infamous Duke lacrosse alleged rape case by the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes, helped to solidify the defense’s most salient points so far – that there has been little, to no evidence publicly revealed proving that three indicted members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team raped and kidnapped a Black exotic dancer at a wild off-campus party March 14; and that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who is personally prosecuting the case, knew early on that his evidence was weak, but exploited the racially-explosive case anyway to win Black votes in last May’s Democratic primary.
The widely viewed report, anchored by veteran CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley, has been generally applauded by supporters of the “Duke Three.”
“The impact of ‘60 Minutes’ expose’ of District Attorney Mike Nifong’s hijacked hoax is readily apparent,” writes blogger Liestoppers(http://liestoppers.blogspot.com/).
“A brief review of some of the comments the big tractor has elicited leaves little doubt that the injustice that we, and other bloggers, have been hollering about for months, is now common knowledge across the country.
From coast to coast, millions of people now know that Nifong is the embodiment of prosecutorial misconduct.”
Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock, an African-American, agreed.
“The charges against the Duke lacrosse players should be dropped immediately, and the people demanding the dismissal the loudest and most forcefully should be the very people who have made a living allegedly fighting against racial injustice,” Whitlock wrote Oct. 16.
“I’ve said this before, but it’s worth saying again,” he continued.
“Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be in Durham, N.C., today, promising civil disobedience until the charges are dropped and prosecutor Mike Nifong resigns.”
And not surprisingly, Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, heralded Bradley and 60 Minutes for focusing on what many believe to be a supreme injustice.
“For an analytical and well known program such as 60 Minutes to come down so decisively on one side of a highly controversial case seems significant,” The Chronicle’s editorial stated.
“The show, anchored by Ed Bradley, highlighted several discrepancies in the prosecution’s case and exposed instances of questionable conduct on the part of Durham officials over the past six months.”
Indeed, correspondent Bradley left no doubt, from the very opening of the report, that the Duke Three were being railroaded by false charges of rape, by a prosecutor who may be up to no good, and is determined to convict them at trial next spring.
“The evidence 60 Minutes has seen reveals disturbing facts about the conduct of the police and the district attorney, and raises serious concerns about whether or not a rape even occurred,” Bradley told his audience at the top of the show.
The three players – Colin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, NY; Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, NJ; and David Forker Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md. – indicted for first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, and first-degree sexual offense, maintained their innocence in first and exclusive interviews with Bradley.
“This woman has destroyed everything I worked for in my life,” Evans, a co-captain of the lacrosse who graduated last spring, only to lose a Wall Street job because of the indictments, told Bradley.
“She’s put it on hold. She’s destroyed two other families and she’s brought shame on a great university. And, worst of all she’s split apart a community and a nation on facts that just didn’t happen and a lie that should have never been told.”
Sophomore Colin Finnerty, who is keeping details of his alibi from the night of the alleged assault close to the vest until trial, told 60 Minutes he has no idea why he was accused of a rape he says he didn’t commit.
“I never expected anyone to get indicted, let alone myself,” Finnerty said.
And teammate Reade Seligmann, who shared evidence of his alibi, maintained to Ed Bradley that he “did nothing wrong.”
The CBS broadcast was certainly powerful, and yet, it didn’t convince everybody.
“Correspondent Ed Bradley, forever immortalized by some… broke no new ground and, except for showing what was allegedly the alleged victim gyrating onstage after the alleged incident, shed no new light on any aspect of the Duke case, “ Raleigh News & Observer columnist Barry Saunders, an African-American, wrote.
Others expressed concern about how demonstratively slanted the 60 Minutes expose’ seemed.
“I thought it was pretty one-sided, but that’s to be expected,” said Chapel Hill civil rights attorney Al McSurely, who also serves as chairman of the NC NAACP Legal Redress Committee.
“The prosecution hasn’t shown any of its whole cards yet, and I don’t think it will until trial.”
Bradley interviewed Duke University Law Professor James Coleman - who is on record blasting DA Nifong’s handling of the case, particularly the controversial police photo lineup of all 46 White lacrosse players.
“I think that he pandered to the [Black] community by saying ‘I’m gonna go out there and defend your interests in seeing that these hooligans who committed the crime are prosecuted,”
Coleman told Ed Bradley, further suggesting that Nifong said, “’I’m not gonna let their fathers, with all of their money, buy, you know, big-time lawyers and get them off. I’m doing this for you.’”
But the 60 Minutes reporter did not interview North Carolina Central University Law Professor Irving Joyner, whose views about the efficacy of the case have been widely-reported in both local and national media such as Court TV.
“[The 60 Minutes piece] failed to present anything about the state’s case, and that’s the way it should have been,” Prof. Joyner said.
“I thought it was a pro-defense theme that sought to take a shot at Nifong, and possibly impact the election, more than anything else.”
Prof. Joyner added that the jury pool in Durham “is already tainted and can’t get any worse” in favor of the defense; the 60 Minutes program will make more lengthy the jury selection process; and that by not revealing any negative background information about the Duke Three or Kim Roberts Pittman, “It was pretty clear that they wanted to present these kids as being pretty pure and without sin” despite evidence of excessive underage drinking and poor judgment the night of the party.
Joyner has no doubt the 60 Minutes’ producers knew he existed. They called him while they were putting the story together, trying to enlist him in their efforts to locate the alleged victim for an exclusive interview, he says. If Joyner had been interviewed, the veteran law professor could have provided some balance to Prof. Coleman’s 60 Minutes presentation.
“We believe there was enough balance in this story,” Kevin Tedesco, spokesman for CBS News and 60 Minutes said.
African-Americans have pointed questions about how truthful the defendants, and especially Kim Roberts Pittman, the second dancer who has called the rape allegations “a crock,” actually were.
Bradley’s report failed to reveal any information about Pittman’s criminal record (she was convicted of embezzling $25,000, and recently was sentenced for violating her probation); the alleged victim (convicted in 2003 of several felony charges related to a car theft, all reduced to misdemeanors) who turned down a chance to be queried on the program according to CBS; or even the minor offenses of two of the three defendants (the most serious being Colin Finnerty’s simple assault conviction in connection with a Washington, D.C. incident last year).
Given how forceful their combined interviews were in making the point that the allegations were fraudulent, giving the audience pertinent information about the backgrounds of all involved, including the accuser, would have given viewers a more accurate barometer of Pittman and the Duke Three’s character and credibility, or lack thereof, beyond their on-air claims, critics say.
And there are questions about just how supportive 60 Minutes and CBS News were of the three indicted Duke defendants.
For example, on the 60 Minutes Web site, there are two links – one for Duke University. The second link on the 60 Minutes site pertaining to the Duke case is to Friends of Duke University, a very supportive and most times constructive blogsite for parents and alumni of the institution who believe the Duke Three are victims of prosecutorial misconduct.
Given the one-sidedness of the report, the “Friends” link raises questions about the bias of CBS News and 60 Minutes regarding this story. Critics say it is especially troubling given that the president of CBS News, Sean McManus, is a Duke University alum.
Tedesco also confirmed that 60 Minutes, in fact, did get in direct contact with the accuser in the case and offered to interview her for the program.
“She refused,” he said, but did not explain why no mention of the offer was made on the Sunday broadcast.
The Durham Herald-Sun reported that DA Nifong advised the alleged victim not to do the interview.
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