No Times Like the Present

Day two after the exoneration of the Duke lacrosse case, and all we have is editorial silence from the self-described paper of record. When the paper ran a fair story on calorie posting, the Times came out the very next day with a scathing denunciation of those of us who feel that the proposal is idiotic. Yet on an issue that the paper itself stooped to new journalistic lows, not only in its news stories but also in its sports columns, not a word the next day and certainly no mea culpas from the self-righteous, politically correct blatherers.

Oh yes, we did have a long front page article on the exoneration yesterday from Duff Wilson, the same reporter who disgraced the paper in August witha 6,000 word miasma of innuendo that manged to keep suspicion alive with unseen "evidence." In yesterday's piece the Duffer avoided any reference to his earlier journalistic malpractice, and went ahead blithely with a piece that underscored the scathing remarks of AG Cooper, words that highlighted the rogue prosecutorial actions of the disgraced Nifong.

In his remarks Cooper emphasized that there were a lot of people who owed the boys apologies. Duff Wilson sits right near the top of the list and he should be joined by his equally disgraceful colleagues from the sports page-Harvey Araton and Serena Roberts. In August, as KC Johnson and Andrea Peyser have pointed out, Wilson had told the Times readers that evidence only the Times was privileged to see established that, although there were some holes in Nifong's case , "there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to bring the matter to a jury."

If in August there was a "body of evidence," but today, according to AG Cooper there is "an overwhelming lack of other evidence," where did Duff's evidence go? Maybe we'll find it with the Iraqi WMDs? And if it doesn't exist, why hasn't the Times corrected this deliberate attempt to inculpate innocent Duke athletes? And lastly, why hasn't the paper fired Wilson and ordered Araton and Roberts to apologize for their slandering of the innocent?