Topic: Media Research Center
In a May 21 Times Watch post (and NewsBusters item), Clay Waters claimed that a New York Times article on the Duke lacrosse team that, though cleared of rape charges, had hired strippers and racked up 15 arrests over three years "may have been guilty of … being college students."
How many college students hire strippers for parties? And an arrest for beating up a guy while hurling anti-gay epithets, as one Duke lacrosse player was charged with, is hardly typical college-student behavior either.
Also, isn't that a lot of arrests for a rather small cross-section of a population? Assuming that the Duke lacrosse team has had, say, 100 full-fledged members over that three-year period, and assuming that each of those 15 arrests involved a different member of the team, that's 15 percent of the lacrosse team having been arrested. Can Waters name any overall college population -- like, say, the entire Duke student body -- in which 15 percent have been arrested? We doubt it. Then again, Waters went on to claim that there exists "credible allegations of discrimination by local cops against Duke students," so we're guessing not.
Waters may want to reconsider his defense over how "innocent" Duke lacrosse players are being "slimed."
