Duke Lacrosse

The Duke Lacrosse case provides an excellent example of the power of the media in shaping a person's perception about a story. I don’t know which media outlets could issue an apology for the somewhat skewed coverage at the beginning of case. As so often happens when something of this magnitude surfaces, every major media outlet is trying to be the first to break the story and acquire the “latest” details. In the scramble, sometimes the great reporting goes out the window and it replaced with people looking for a great sound bite or something that will stir things up. They seemed to jump at any opportunity for an “exclusive” interview.

The media painted a picture of naturally aggressive lacrosse players and focused on the racism that still exists in the south. When you discuss racism and that the victim happened to be African American, it makes it seem more likely that something like this would happen.

The biggest mistake was allowing the district attorney have huge amounts of airtime, while the defense was not given as much. I think the district attorney was looking for something to gain in this case. Now that the facts have surfaced, he has left the case and should probably lose his license to practice law.

The news media was not at fault for extensive coverage of the case, but needed to be more responsible with gathering information. It is an incredibly powerful tool of manipulation, and it influenced people to feel a certain way toward the lacrosse players. Their lives will be forever tainted by what did or didn’t happen that night at the party.