re: I just rewatched the Duke lacrosse 30-30

Ten years after Duke Lacrosse rape hoax, media has learned nothing

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It's now been 10 years since members of the Duke University lacrosse team hired two strippers for a party and were then accused of rape. The three players who were arrested for the rape were deemed innocent, the district attorney who pursued the case despite evidence to the contrary was disbarred and those in the media that pushed the false narrative looked like fools.

Except, in the decade since the hoax, members of the media have not learned anything when it comes to stories that confirm their pre-existing narratives. That was proven in late 2014, when Rolling Stone published a now-retracted article claiming a woman was gang-raped at a different university. It has been just over a year since that story went to print, but it has been 10 years since the Duke Lacrosse scandal and yet neither hoax has led to the media searching their consciences when it comes to allegations of heinous crimes such as rape.

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On Sunday, ESPN aired the latest in their "30 for 30" series, titled "Fantastic Lies." The documentary was about the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax and aired on the anniversary of the day the team members threw that fateful party. The documentary told the story of how the story exploded in the national media and was eventually proven false.

Yet some in the media don't seem to believe the Duke players were victims themselves. Take Slate's Christina Cauterucci, for example. She wrote that "it's a bizarre experience to watch a documentary that expects the viewer to root for a bunch of accused rapists." This highlights exactly the problem with false accusations: Even when someone is proven innocent, they are always somehow guilty of something, because they are "accused rapists."

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watching the documentary, I can't help but see similarities to how campus accusations are handled today, not only by the media but also by campus administrators. "Guilty until proven innocent," as occurred in the Duke case, has become the norm on college campuses

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Then, even when the accusations become questionable or are proven false, the media covers itself in the way Cauterucci did – by blaming the falsely accused. In the documentary, Selena Roberts, a former sports columnist for the New York Times, editorialized: "There was plenty foul about that night," in reference to the party thrown by the Lacrosse players.

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Then comes the spin from those committed to the narrative that "something must have happened," as Jay Bilas, an ESPN analyst and lawyer pointed out.

"I understand people saying [that something happened in the bathroom], there's just no evidence of it. And none of it's credible. In fact, every piece of evidence points to the fact that nothing did and it was impossible for it to have happened," Bilas said. "And if you look at all of the inconsistent statements, the evidence that wasn't there, it's an impossibility."

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Ruth Sheehan, a Raleigh News & Observer columnist who had written an article demanding the Lacrosse players turn each other in (for a crime they didn't commit), was the only journalist who appeared to regret what she had done initially. She wrote a column apologizing to the team when the case was over and the boys were cleared.

"I guess we should have tamped our outrage and waited to see what the evidence showed," Sheehan said.

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And don't forget the 88 cocksuckers who signed that awful letter and never retracted it

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Some who were punished by having to go from Duke to full professor positions at Vandy, Harvard and MIT

It really was a social travesty

Been said multiple times but bears repeating. LSU hired Alleva after this frick up. How did that happen?

It’s an embarrassment that Alleva has any job, much less at my Alma mater.

Almost certainly signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of their deal with the university preventing them from commenting.

The three accused started the Innoncence Project which is a non-profit legal organization committed to exonerating the wrongly accused. Think those guys are doing their share of good.

Meanwhile, we’ve entered a point in this coming where all female accusers must be taken at their word and the male must be immediately fired because nobody EVER makes up a fake sexual harassment/assault accusation. Wtf?

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Out of all the sports for this to happen to, lacrosse was probably the best. At least these kids’ families were well off enough to fight this.

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Exactly. Can you imagine if these men hadn't been able to afford to fight it? They would probably still be in jail.

nancy grace had a big egg on her face too

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The thing that stood out to me was none of the guys accused agreed to be interviewed 10 years later

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confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements usually don't have an expiration date