January 29, 2012

SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News "Sex, lies and newspapers"

Dave Danforth:

"But a couple of complications intervened. Last year’s Yale Daily editor, Vivian Yee, worked with the New York Times, as many Yale journalists do, and knew of the story. And last year’s opinion editor, Alex Stein, wrote a blistering note printed late last week by the widely respected journalist blogger Jim Romenesko criticizing the Yale paper’s decision.

“We have all been let down,” said Stein, a major in ethics, politics and economics. “In choosing to ignore this story, the News …  perpetuated the deceptive, now-shredded narrative of Pat’s ‘heroic choice,’” he continued, noting “the paper and its editor are also complicit in Yale’s culture of secrecy surrounding sexual assault.”

Bloggers responding to the explanation of the student editor respecting privacy in the face of unknown allegations commended him. Some suggested he was the only adult in a roomful of kids. Yet another said the episode “smelled of a coverup” by Yale and its paper.
Expectation of privacy is not usually raised in such cases. It arises from the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, and its protection against unreasonable searches. Privacy is not an explicitly listed right, but court decisions have widely cited it. However, those cases involved police actions. An outgrowth of libel law appears to confer a right to privacy that can be violated even where an allegation is true...."(Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "All the news that's unfit to print"

Kathleen Parker:

"WASHINGTON — A Friday New York Times story that essentially indicted and convicted a 22-year-old star football player on an alleged sexual assault charge by an anonymous accuser should have begun as follows:

“We know absolutely nothing about this rumor except what six people told us anonymously about this guy who they say sexually assaulted this girl. We don't know who she is or what she said, or really anything, but here's HIS name and what ‘they' say about him.”

Instead, with throat-clearing authority, the story begins with the young man's name — Patrick J. Witt, Yale University's former quarterback — and his announcement last fall that he was withdrawing his Rhodes scholarship application so that he could play against Harvard. The game was scheduled the same day as the scholarship interview.

Next we are told that he actually had withdrawn his application for the scholarship after the Rhodes Trust had learned “through unofficial channels that a fellow student had accused Witt of sexual assault.” And there goes the gavel. Case closed.

But in fact, no one seems to know much of anything, and no one in an official capacity is talking. The only people advancing this devastating and sordid tale are “a half-dozen [anonymous] people with knowledge of all or part of the story.” All or part? Which part? As in, “Heard any good gossip lately?...” (Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."