Richard H. Brodhead Case Summary

It is not rare that the media jumped to the coverage of this case, mainly because it involved the sports’ team of an elite university as it is Duke and because the “victim” happened to be African-American. Not only did the university’s administration and faculty rushed to turn their backs to the lacrosse team, but they also rushed to judge them. With president Richard H. Brodhead’s public statement that they were not going to support the lacrosse team in any way and then later, as a ramification of the scandal, the abrupt and impetuous cancelation of an entire season. Not to mention the Group 88 a response of disapproval from the faculty towards the lacrosse team. The News & Observer, which has a circulation of around 180,000, including 10,000 copies in Durham County, printed an irresponsible front-page article on the entire case. …show more content…
Exactly the same did several other publications: jump into a conclusion. A conclusion that implied that the entire lacrosse team was culpable of a sex crime and that Mangum was the targeted “victim.” Not only were the headlines accusative, but also the content itself; The N&O article repetitively referred to Mangum as the “victim” who was “struggling not to cry” and that “her father’s concern that ‘someone hurt his baby’; her two children and ‘full class load at N.C. Central University’” (65). The N&O and other news organizations made a journalistic violation in the midst of their rush and competitive