Being a pundit means you never have to say you're sorry (Signifying Nothing: how does saying nothing at all become so loud?)

Monday, 10 April 2006

Being a pundit means you never have to say you're sorry

Opinions are like assholes—everyone has one:

Wendy Murphy, a former Massachusetts prosecutor and adjunct professor at Boston’s New England School of Law who teaches a seminar on sexual violence, said releasing details of the photos was a sign that lawyers were worried the DNA testing would produce a match with some of the players.

“If the DNA isn’t going to match, they wouldn’t need to do this,” she said. “It’s almost comical that they think a photograph is proof positive that a rape didn’t happen. It’s not a smoking gun. It’s a muddying of the waters.”

Bad timing, it’s a wonderful thing.

4 comments:

Any views expressed in these comments are solely those of their authors; they do not reflect the views of the authors of Signifying Nothing, unless attributed to one of us.

1. noah wrote @ Mon, 10 Apr 2006, 5:59 pm CDT:

This is tragic. Didn’t the woman undergo a rape screening at the hospital? Wouldn’t that screening have found evidence of rape (skin abrasions, vaginal or anal bleeding, etc.) that allowed this to move forward? Did the woman claim that condoms were used?

If the woman made up these claims, as the DNA leads one to believe, then how badly will this affect a real victim’s efforts for justice? Will a real rape victim be afraid of reporting a rape because of fears that her (or his) claims will be rejected? (For instance, at the Air Force Academy, women were victimized but their claims were ignored.)

On the flipside, if all of the accusations are proven false, will those who described Duke as possessing a “culture of rape” apologize?

I don’t think Ryan McFadyen has much of future now because of his lame email. But why did his teammate(s) release the e-mail? McFayden is a goof but who is going to want to hire him given his Web history? I saw a posting on a sports website that compared him Hannibal Lechter, going so far as to superimpose McFadyen’s picture on a poster of “Silence of the Lambs.” Any potential school or employer will find all of those stories linking him to the rape and a copy of his e-mail. Again, I do wonder about the reason that the e-mail was released. Someone was either scared or hated him.

And God, what about the racist loons who will be jumping for joy over this? How many of them will be crowing about “playing the race card” blah, blah, blah Tawana Brawley!

Finally, I hope that the men’s lacrosse team isn’t shuttered. Whatever the sins of individuals on the team, the sport shouldn’t see an end. Frankly, I don’t believe that a sport at a school should be a money maker, a profit center.

2. Ramar wrote @ Mon, 10 Apr 2006, 6:08 pm CDT:

My guess is that the cops found the McFayden e-mail on one of the computers seized in their search of the 610 N. Buchanan house. No reason to think that one of the teammates saw fit to turn it over.

3. Igor wrote @ Mon, 10 Apr 2006, 8:44 pm CDT:

Noah, we don’t know what exactly was found by the nurse at the hospital. Maybe the nurse did’t know that she was screening a prostitute. I wonder also what did they compare players’ DNA with? Semen? Whose? Someone asked that question at the press-conference, but the answer was not clear.

Tawana Brawley is right! ;)

I don’t think anyone would apologize for the assault on the players, lacrosse program, university etc. Most blacks probably would not believe the results, assuming that rich whites saved their asses. Whites would try do downplay the whole incident, calling for “peace”, “healing” and some such.

I wonder though why we are so lenient towards those who make false accusations of such serious crime? Should this low-life be punished now? In any case her crookedness might hurt the real rape victims.