Sister Toldjah calls this refreshing
Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: I am sorry.
Surely by now you know I am sorry. I am writing these words now, and in this form, as a bookend to 13 months of Duke lacrosse coverage, my role in which started with a March 27 column that began:
"Members of the men's Duke lacrosse team: You know. We know you know."
That was when Durham police and District Attorney Mike Nifong were describing a "wall of silence" among the men who attended the now-vaunted lacrosse party at 610 Buchanan Blvd. Nifong, now described by the state attorney general as a "rogue prosecutor," was widely respected as solid, even understated.
Though wrong, my initial column was cheered by hundreds of readers.
Last weekend, our public editor, Ted Vaden, laid me low for that first column, and the second, which called for the firing of lacrosse coach Mike Pressler. According to Don Yeager, a former Sports Illustrated staffer who is writing a book about the case, Pressler blames me for his dismissal. I'm sorry he ended up coaching at a Division III school.
While it is great that Ruth has made this admission, I have to ask, what was she doing while she was slamming the lacrosse players? Was that journalism?
It certainly isn't my place to accept her apology. It is the place of those she smeared. I wonder if they care?
Meanwhile, WRAL (Raleigh) has a story that is very interesting
Raleigh — Special prosecutors found no credible evidence that an exotic dancer was attacked by three former Duke lacrosse players and that her testimony would have been contradicted by evidence from numerous sources, according to a report released Friday by the North Carolina Attorney General's Office. Read the report.
You know, I still have to wonder, what the hell was the Attorney General's office doing during this whole disaster? What was Governor Easley doing? Where were the judges? Where were the Feds? Where were any Internal Affairs reps to look at what the Durham PD was doing?
