Bob Ashley, one of the many enablers of the Duke Lacrosse Hoax, needs to resign
| 8
|
by user Tylersarticles
Bob Ashley, the editor of the Durham Herald Sun newspaper, needs to resign from his position for the newspaper's horrendous coverage of the Duke Lacrosse Hoax, effective immediately. The Durham Herald Sun, which is now receiving an uproar of criticism for their seemingly one newspaper pursuit to keep Mike Nifong's hoax of a case against the three wrongfully accused Duke students alive, needs a new editor to regain any credibility.
Regarding the Mike Nifong scandal, the newspaper did not publish one editorial that was critical of Nifong or his weak case until January of 2007. Although any reasonable person without a bias invested in the case could realize Nifong's pursuit to send three innocent men to prison for crimes they obviously did not commit was unethical at best, criminal at worst as early as October of 2006. As we now know, Nifong did not have a morsel of evidence to gain indictments in the case. This was evident to the entire nation the first 60 Minutes program about the Duke lacrosse case aired in that month. That series truly shifted the pendulum to how the media viewed the entire case and people started to realize who the real victims were in this case, the wrongfully accused men.
Not only have there been glaring weaknesses in the case since the DNA tests came back negative for all 46 white lacrosse players on the roster, Reade Seligmann produced video footage that he was at a Wachovia ATM branch during the time of the alleged attack. This video was available over the internet during the summer. How come the Herald Sun did not write one piece saying, "Hey, at least one of these kids is overwhelmingly innocent. What is Nifong doing?" Instead, the newspaper downplayed the 60 Minutes broadcast in an attempt to keep Nifong's frame-up alive. Nifong's egregious behavior is unprecedented and he will suffer all of the consequences for it. Not only is he nearly guaranteed to get disbarred by the North Carolina State bar when he has his ethics hearing in June, he will probably be the defendant in a criminal case after the federal government conducts a full investigation in to why Nifong charged three overwhelmingly innocent men. Even worse for Nifong, he will go down in history as one of the most unethical prosecutors in the history of the United States.
K.C. Johnson has brilliantly analyzed all of the biased articles that have surfaced on the newspaper's website. In great detail, Johnson points out how the newspaper tried to downplay exculpatory evidence, but instead vilify members of the lacrosse team that enabled Nifong to advance with his weak case. I encourage anyone who reads this to write to Mr. Ashley and demand that he apologize to the innocent young men whose reputations will never be the same. In an apologia about the Herald Sun's coverage of the lacrosse case earlier in the week, Ashley defends the coverage of the newspaper and denies all allegations that the newspaper was biased in its coverage of the case. However, the fact that all of the articles that slanderously assassinated the overwhelming innocent Duke lacrosse players are still up on the internet is damning to his claim. I will let you decide on whether or not the Herald Sun was bias in its coverage. Obviously, I have already made up my mind.
Let me know what you think.
Contact Ashley at (919) 419-6678 or by e-mail at bashley@heraldsun.com. Be classy when you ask him questions about the paper's pro-Nifong coverage of the lacrosse hoax. Do not let people as morally bankrupt as Bob Ashley become a victim like members of the Group of 88 tried to become when the Duke case started to fall apart.
Here is what Jim Cooney had to say about the Herald Sun after Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty were completely exonerated of all charges last week.
> > The reason [the system] misfired is because people were afraid to speak truth to power. And I want to call out first the newspaper in Durham, North Carolina, the Durham Herald-Sun, who to this day has not written a single editorial critical of the way which Mike Nifong proceeded. If the Durham Herald-Sun had bothered to stand up and demand proper processes, the presumption of innocence and doing things the way our constitution provides, do you think Mike Nifong would have rolled forward? > > Instead they published editorials talking about how bad all the lacrosse players were and that the lacrosse players should have to prove their innocence, and that in addition to the crimes that night, there was a crime of a cover-up. And you’ll not see a word of apology from them . . . But if they had done what journalists were supposed to do and spoken truth to power, they could have slowed this train down.
--Jim Cooney
In his analysis of the paper, Mr. Cooney is 100 percent right. He could not have hit the nail on the head any more. Click here for a video of Cooney at last week's press conference where the real victims of this case were exonerated of all of the bogus charges.
It will be interesting to see how the newspaper could last after their biased coverage in this case. They simply have no credibility left. With Ashley as editor, how could they continue to attract a customer base in the Durham area? Are there that many Victoria Peterson's in the world?
