Gray Lady Down (15 page)
Authors: William McGowan
Yet even here, on the biggest bombshell of the case, the
Times
allowed two weeks to elapse before reporting this testimony. In fact, the
Times
did not even have a reporter in the courtroom when the revelations were made; its account was cobbled together from reports by spectators and other witnesses. When its own reporter, a heavy-hitting investigative reporter named David Barstow—brought in to compensate for the less-than-rigorous Duff Wilson—finally wrote about the dropping of the rape charges, he did so using Nifong as an anonymous source at one point, and granting Nifong room to rationalize why he had basically told the forensic scientist not to include the exculpatory DNA in his report, and to maintain that the case for assault and kidnapping was actually stronger without the rape charge.
Times
allowed two weeks to elapse before reporting this testimony. In fact, the
Times
did not even have a reporter in the courtroom when the revelations were made; its account was cobbled together from reports by spectators and other witnesses. When its own reporter, a heavy-hitting investigative reporter named David Barstow—brought in to compensate for the less-than-rigorous Duff Wilson—finally wrote about the dropping of the rape charges, he did so using Nifong as an anonymous source at one point, and granting Nifong room to rationalize why he had basically told the forensic scientist not to include the exculpatory DNA in his report, and to maintain that the case for assault and kidnapping was actually stronger without the rape charge.
Soon, Nifong was taken off the case. The attorney general of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, took over and released a scathing report at the end of April 2007, thirteen months after the ordeal began. Of the accuser, the report charged:
In meetings with the special prosecutors, the accusing witness, when recounting the events of that night, changed her story on so many important issues as to give the impression she was improvising as the interviews progressed, even when she was faced with irrefutable evidence that what she was saying was not credible.... The accusing witness attempted to avoid the contradictions by changing her story, contradicting
previous stories or alleging the evidence was fabricated.
previous stories or alleging the evidence was fabricated.
KC Johnson, author of the Durham-in-Wonderland blog, quoted Cooper’s statement that “a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to, to other people. I think that those people ought to consider doing that.” Johnson went on to specify who should start apologizing: the
Times
columnists Selena Roberts and Harvey Araton, the reporter Duff Wilson, and the paper’s senior editors.
Times
columnists Selena Roberts and Harvey Araton, the reporter Duff Wilson, and the paper’s senior editors.
As one Duke student asked, if the
Times
had restrained its coverage a little bit, or perhaps been more skeptical, “would the entire story, the entire case, the entire ‘perfect storm’ have been the same? Would it still have been a story of such national prominence if The Times had run something else on its front page?” As the case collapsed, Daniel Okrent added: “If and when The Times does a big story on what went wrong in the Duke case, unless they’re a part of the story, unless they report on themselves, it will be an incomplete story.” Okrent liked to imagine an apology that would candidly say, “We blew it. We’re sorry. We accept responsibility for having blown it.”
Times
had restrained its coverage a little bit, or perhaps been more skeptical, “would the entire story, the entire case, the entire ‘perfect storm’ have been the same? Would it still have been a story of such national prominence if The Times had run something else on its front page?” As the case collapsed, Daniel Okrent added: “If and when The Times does a big story on what went wrong in the Duke case, unless they’re a part of the story, unless they report on themselves, it will be an incomplete story.” Okrent liked to imagine an apology that would candidly say, “We blew it. We’re sorry. We accept responsibility for having blown it.”
But that mea culpa never came. Editorials denouncing Nifong ran in other papers, including the
Los Angeles Times,
the
Washington Post,
the
Wall Street Journal
and
USA Today.
But not in the
New York Times.
Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson’s book on the case,
Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case,
came out in 2007. The
Times Book Review
devoted only two sentences to the scores of passages that eviscerated the paper’s coverage of the case.
Los Angeles Times,
the
Washington Post,
the
Wall Street Journal
and
USA Today.
But not in the
New York Times.
Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson’s book on the case,
Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case,
came out in 2007. The
Times Book Review
devoted only two sentences to the scores of passages that eviscerated the paper’s coverage of the case.
five
immigration
T
he narrative about “a nation of immigrants” is a powerful American ideal, and so there’s always been a certain measure of romanticism in reporting on immigrants. But the
New York Times’
willingness to recast the narrative as “a nation of victims” is so striking that it seems a calculated act of journalistic aggression. The paper has either ignored, miscovered or muted the less appealing realities of immigration—especially those involving the illegal immigration that has threatened to swamp the southwestern part of the country in recent decades.
he narrative about “a nation of immigrants” is a powerful American ideal, and so there’s always been a certain measure of romanticism in reporting on immigrants. But the
New York Times’
willingness to recast the narrative as “a nation of victims” is so striking that it seems a calculated act of journalistic aggression. The paper has either ignored, miscovered or muted the less appealing realities of immigration—especially those involving the illegal immigration that has threatened to swamp the southwestern part of the country in recent decades.
First there are the blatant sins of omission: fully newsworthy stories that are salient to various facets of the immigration
debate, but don’t get reported at all. They are airbrushed out of the record,
Pravda
-like.
debate, but don’t get reported at all. They are airbrushed out of the record,
Pravda
-like.
• In Denver in 2007, a Mexican illegal alien dragged a woman to death after beating her. The man had been arrested before, but was released after one night even though he had a crudely forged ID card, which was returned to him. The story got no coverage by the
Times.
Times.
• In Tennessee in 2007, an illegal alien committed vehicular manslaughter, killing a husband and wife, Sean and Donna Wilson. It was found that the perpetrator had fourteen prior arrests but had done no jail time. Local commentators, such as the syndicated radio talk show host Phil Valentine, voiced the possibility that politicians, judges and prosecutors—all Democrats—were going easy on such offenders to court the Latino vote. Again, no coverage in the
Times.
Times.
• In New York, as around the country, illegals are overrepresented in hit-and-run accidents—as perpetrators, not victims. But instead of exploring this trend, the
Times
chooses to emphasize the more multiculturally correct side of the coin: stories where illegal immigrants are
victims
of vehicular accidents. In 2009, Lawrence Downes wrote an editorial about immigrants leading “quiet but precarious” lives who have been killed while traveling the streets of Long Island suburbs on foot or bicycle, because they could not afford a car.
Times
chooses to emphasize the more multiculturally correct side of the coin: stories where illegal immigrants are
victims
of vehicular accidents. In 2009, Lawrence Downes wrote an editorial about immigrants leading “quiet but precarious” lives who have been killed while traveling the streets of Long Island suburbs on foot or bicycle, because they could not afford a car.
• In New Haven, Connecticut, in March 2009, an illegal Mexican busboy asked a 25-year-old waitress, with whom he had worked for a year, for a ride home. The man punched the woman in the face, knocking her out of the car. He proceeded to smash her cell phone, beat her and rape her. Then he drove to a more secluded location, where he raped and beat her again, this time trying to kill her by hitting her with tree branches and trying to gouge out her eyes. The victim played dead, and later crawled to a nearby house for help. Despite the heinousness of the crime, the
Times
chose not to cover it, even though it routinely covers other
developments in New Haven, including the controversies over granting identity cards to illegal immigrants, and the immigrant community’s fears over federal raids on illegal immigrants with outstanding arrest warrants.
Times
chose not to cover it, even though it routinely covers other
developments in New Haven, including the controversies over granting identity cards to illegal immigrants, and the immigrant community’s fears over federal raids on illegal immigrants with outstanding arrest warrants.
• The
Times
did a piece on how happy immigrant parents were with ethnically themed public charter schools, dismissing concerns about assimilation by quoting ethnic studies professors saying that these parents were being “as American as apple pie.” Meanwhile, the paper has ignored the workings of a Muslim charter school outside Minneapolis where public monies are being spent to advance an Islamist agenda. Although the ACLU was looking into the school to determine whether it violated the Constitution’s establishment clause, and anti-jihadi watchdog groups were calling for the school’s deaccreditation, the
Times
didn’t go near it.
Times
did a piece on how happy immigrant parents were with ethnically themed public charter schools, dismissing concerns about assimilation by quoting ethnic studies professors saying that these parents were being “as American as apple pie.” Meanwhile, the paper has ignored the workings of a Muslim charter school outside Minneapolis where public monies are being spent to advance an Islamist agenda. Although the ACLU was looking into the school to determine whether it violated the Constitution’s establishment clause, and anti-jihadi watchdog groups were calling for the school’s deaccreditation, the
Times
didn’t go near it.
• In 2009, responding to an online discussion among Muslim students at MIT about the Islamic position on death for apostasy, Harvard’s Muslim chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser told the students that “there is great wisdom (
hikma
) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand.” Concerned Harvard alumni, both Muslim and non-Muslim, wrote the school to complain, some calling for Abdul-Basser’s removal. This is exactly the sort of story the
Times
would have jumped at if ethnic sensitivities were not involved. But the
Times
ignored it.
hikma
) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand.” Concerned Harvard alumni, both Muslim and non-Muslim, wrote the school to complain, some calling for Abdul-Basser’s removal. This is exactly the sort of story the
Times
would have jumped at if ethnic sensitivities were not involved. But the
Times
ignored it.
• In mid 2010, a 21-year-old Indian girl filed suit for “slavery and peonage” against an Indian government official posted to the United Nations who, ironically, was known as a champion of women’s rights. Brought into the United States illegally as a minor in 2007 by the diplomat and her husband, who had lied to immigration authorities, the girl charged that she was forced to work sixteen hours a day, seven days a week; that she slept on the floor of the Indian mission to the U.N. and was often starved; that she received little of the pittance she was promised, and was told
that if she attempted to leave, “the police would beat and arrest her” and send her back to India as “cargo.” MSNBC, the
Boston Globe,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer,
the
Fresno Bee,
the
Wall Street Journal
and the
New York Post
all ran the story. But despite the obvious news angle of a supposed women’s rights crusader being sued for “slavery and peonage,” as well as a foreign diplomat lying to U.S. authorities, the
Times
did not do the story.
that if she attempted to leave, “the police would beat and arrest her” and send her back to India as “cargo.” MSNBC, the
Boston Globe,
the
Philadelphia Inquirer,
the
Fresno Bee,
the
Wall Street Journal
and the
New York Post
all ran the story. But despite the obvious news angle of a supposed women’s rights crusader being sued for “slavery and peonage,” as well as a foreign diplomat lying to U.S. authorities, the
Times
did not do the story.
• In early November 2009, a member of the ruthless Salvadoran gang MS-13, who was a legal immigrant from El Salvador, confessed to authorities that he had been hired by a gang leader in his home country to arrange the assassination of a ranking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who had led a crackdown on the gang’s New York operations. The plot’s revelation led to a “blitz” of arrests, as the
New York Daily News
put it, involving hundreds of federal agents. The attempt to murder the ICE agent came as Central American criminal violence, particularly the intimidation of law enforcement and criminal justice officials, had begun seeping into the United States, which certainly made the assassination plot newsworthy, as did the cross-border nature of the attempted hit, the forceful federal response to it, and the local New York angle. Yet the
Times
did not report on it, prompting Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies to say, “What’s it gonna take for the
Times
to report something like this? The beheading of a federal judge?”
New York Daily News
put it, involving hundreds of federal agents. The attempt to murder the ICE agent came as Central American criminal violence, particularly the intimidation of law enforcement and criminal justice officials, had begun seeping into the United States, which certainly made the assassination plot newsworthy, as did the cross-border nature of the attempted hit, the forceful federal response to it, and the local New York angle. Yet the
Times
did not report on it, prompting Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies to say, “What’s it gonna take for the
Times
to report something like this? The beheading of a federal judge?”
In addition to such conspicuous silences, the paper’s immigration reporting is marked by sins of commission too—by underreported and ideologically one-sided stories where significant information and salient facts have been avoided, deflected or euphemized to the point where the information lacuna causes the reader to lose the essence of what the story is really about and what has really taken place.
• In what many considered a Muslim “honor killing” in Buffalo, New York, a prominent Pakistani-born Muslim executive of a television network—which he established to fight stereotypes
about Islam—stabbed and beheaded his wife in 2009 after she had served him with divorce papers and obtained a restraining order to keep him away from their house and children, following a long pattern of abuse and violence. Despite the heinous details and the culturally inflammatory nature of the crime, which cut to the issue of Muslim compatibility with American norms, it took a week for the
Times
to get on the story. When it did, the Web report described the decapitation euphemistically.
Times
reports also carried copious denials that the murder was an “honor killing” from Muslim advocacy groups.
about Islam—stabbed and beheaded his wife in 2009 after she had served him with divorce papers and obtained a restraining order to keep him away from their house and children, following a long pattern of abuse and violence. Despite the heinous details and the culturally inflammatory nature of the crime, which cut to the issue of Muslim compatibility with American norms, it took a week for the
Times
to get on the story. When it did, the Web report described the decapitation euphemistically.
Times
reports also carried copious denials that the murder was an “honor killing” from Muslim advocacy groups.
• The
Times
gave incomplete information on a 2006 story from Maywood, California, where an American flag was stomped on by illegal aliens demanding amnesty, and a Mexican flag was hoisted in its place. In addition to minimizing the number of Mexican and Central American flags at the protest, the
Times
scrubbed some of the rhetoric at this demonstration and others, such as comments by groups like La Raza that Mexicans are involved in the
Reconquista
of lands stolen by gringos long ago.
Times
gave incomplete information on a 2006 story from Maywood, California, where an American flag was stomped on by illegal aliens demanding amnesty, and a Mexican flag was hoisted in its place. In addition to minimizing the number of Mexican and Central American flags at the protest, the
Times
scrubbed some of the rhetoric at this demonstration and others, such as comments by groups like La Raza that Mexicans are involved in the
Reconquista
of lands stolen by gringos long ago.
• The
Times
has given short shrift to the way towns and cities with high densities of illegal immigrants have undermined immigration laws. Many have enacted so-called “sanctuary laws” making it illegal for local officials, including police, to report illegal aliens to federal authorities unless they have committed major crimes. Maywood, where the U.S. flag was stomped, has gone even further. As Heather Mac Donald explained in
City Journal,
it “abolished its drunk-driving checkpoints, because they were nabbing too many illegal aliens. Next, this 96 percent Latino city, almost half of whose adult population lacks a ninth-grade education, disbanded its police traffic division entirely, so that illegals wouldn’t need to worry about having their cars towed for being unlicensed. . . . At a March 2006 city council meeting in Maywood, a resident suggested that a councilmember was using English as a sign of disrespect.” The
Times
ignored these developments.
Times
has given short shrift to the way towns and cities with high densities of illegal immigrants have undermined immigration laws. Many have enacted so-called “sanctuary laws” making it illegal for local officials, including police, to report illegal aliens to federal authorities unless they have committed major crimes. Maywood, where the U.S. flag was stomped, has gone even further. As Heather Mac Donald explained in
City Journal,
it “abolished its drunk-driving checkpoints, because they were nabbing too many illegal aliens. Next, this 96 percent Latino city, almost half of whose adult population lacks a ninth-grade education, disbanded its police traffic division entirely, so that illegals wouldn’t need to worry about having their cars towed for being unlicensed. . . . At a March 2006 city council meeting in Maywood, a resident suggested that a councilmember was using English as a sign of disrespect.” The
Times
ignored these developments.
• The
Times
did report on a caste-based killing in Chicago, where in 2008 an Indian immigrant set fire to his pregnant
daughter’s apartment over a “cultural slight.” The fire killed four people—the daughter, her husband, and their three-year-old child. The
Times
noted that the father was angry that his daughter married without permission and that the husband was of a lower caste. But it gave no sense of the presence of caste-related violence and resentment in the United States, as represented by the many high-caste wealthy Indian couples who bring over lower-caste girls as servants but wind up sexually exploiting and physically abusing them. Most of these cases have gone unreported. When the
Times
has reported on caste, it says—against considerable evidence to the contrary—that the tradition is “withering.”
Times
did report on a caste-based killing in Chicago, where in 2008 an Indian immigrant set fire to his pregnant
daughter’s apartment over a “cultural slight.” The fire killed four people—the daughter, her husband, and their three-year-old child. The
Times
noted that the father was angry that his daughter married without permission and that the husband was of a lower caste. But it gave no sense of the presence of caste-related violence and resentment in the United States, as represented by the many high-caste wealthy Indian couples who bring over lower-caste girls as servants but wind up sexually exploiting and physically abusing them. Most of these cases have gone unreported. When the
Times
has reported on caste, it says—against considerable evidence to the contrary—that the tradition is “withering.”
• In January 2008, when a Mexican American U.S. Marine was shot by cops in the largely Mexican immigrant town of Ceres, California, after shooting one policeman and wounding another, the
Times
reported that he was under stress because of an order to return to Iraq for another tour and was not in one of the gangs that dominate the town. The account was threaded with quotes from friends saying that the Marine was “a good Mexican boy” and that he “died like a real Mexican, standing up.” Soon after-word, Michelle Malkin reported that in fact he did have gang associations, showing pictures of him with gang paraphernalia, and that he was high on coke. Malkin also reported that he was not being redeployed to Iraq and had never served there—confabulated assertions in the
Times
report.
Times
reported that he was under stress because of an order to return to Iraq for another tour and was not in one of the gangs that dominate the town. The account was threaded with quotes from friends saying that the Marine was “a good Mexican boy” and that he “died like a real Mexican, standing up.” Soon after-word, Michelle Malkin reported that in fact he did have gang associations, showing pictures of him with gang paraphernalia, and that he was high on coke. Malkin also reported that he was not being redeployed to Iraq and had never served there—confabulated assertions in the
Times
report.
• In December 2007, a woman was savagely raped in a Queens park by four Mexican illegals. Once arrested, they were found to have long rap sheets and a long record of missed court appearances, which made them deportable. The
Times
did not report their illegal status, referring to them merely as “homeless men.” Nor did it connect the dots back to New York City’s sanctuary policies, which protected three of the four from deportation for offenses such as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession and drug offenses. Around this time, however, the
Times
hailed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reversal of a proposal that city workers check identities of illegals, declaring that doing so would “deny privacy rights for immigrants” and that
“at the end of the day mandatory status disclosure would hurt everyone’s public safety” by “chilling illegals from coming forward to report crime and abuse
.
”
Times
did not report their illegal status, referring to them merely as “homeless men.” Nor did it connect the dots back to New York City’s sanctuary policies, which protected three of the four from deportation for offenses such as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession and drug offenses. Around this time, however, the
Times
hailed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reversal of a proposal that city workers check identities of illegals, declaring that doing so would “deny privacy rights for immigrants” and that
“at the end of the day mandatory status disclosure would hurt everyone’s public safety” by “chilling illegals from coming forward to report crime and abuse
.
”
• The
Times
has given protective coverage to intolerant acts by immigrant Muslims. A case in point was the threats by fellow Muslims against an imam in Brooklyn because of the relatively liberal views he expressed to Andrea Elliott for her three-part series “An Imam in America.” Elliott did not report these threats—which encouraged the imam to relocate to New Jersey—until nearly a year after he started receiving them. While her stories acknowledged many negative things about the imam, the series as a whole was largely positive, sparking controversy.
Times
has given protective coverage to intolerant acts by immigrant Muslims. A case in point was the threats by fellow Muslims against an imam in Brooklyn because of the relatively liberal views he expressed to Andrea Elliott for her three-part series “An Imam in America.” Elliott did not report these threats—which encouraged the imam to relocate to New Jersey—until nearly a year after he started receiving them. While her stories acknowledged many negative things about the imam, the series as a whole was largely positive, sparking controversy.
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