PROVOST/PROFESSORS/TEENAGERS/DOGMA: Dragged behind a dumpster at Stanford!

MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2016

Part 1—The culture of misstatement:
Molly Roberts graduated from Harvard last month.

Today, Roberts is "an intern for the [Washington] Post's editorial page." We're not sure what that positon entails, but in yesterday's Washington Post, Roberts wrote an essay about "the debate over whether the standard for determining what constitutes sexual assault and rape should shift from 'no means no' to 'yes means yes.' "

Not that there's anything wrong with it! By normal standards, the Sunday, hard-copy Washington Post would seem to be a high platform for the work of someone so young. In this case, though, Roberts was writing from the younger person's perspective about a topic which is being widely debated on the nation's many malfunctioning campuses.

Needless to say, that includes Stanford. Roberts started like this:
ROBERTS (6/19/16): Brock Turner has done one good thing for the country: The former Stanford University swimmer’s case has brought the conversation about sexual assault and campus culture back onto the national stage, and with it the debate over whether the standard for determining what constitutes sexual assault and rape should shift from “no means no” to “yes means yes.”
Roberts (and her editor) seemed to assume that readers would know who Brock Turner is and what his case entails. For now, we'll make the same assumption.

Eventually, Roberts would argue against a switch to a "yes means yes" standard. She did so early in her piece, in the following passage:
ROBERTS: In a country where a varsity athlete at an elite school drags a woman so drunk she cannot move behind a dumpster and then blames the attack on a culture of alcohol abuse and “promiscuity,” it’s hard to argue against the need for change.

Changing the definition of rape, though? That’s trickier. Because while affirmative consent might be a nice idea, it’s just not how kids have sex.
Each reader can assess Roberts' view on the appropriate definition of rape. We were struck by the highlighted statement, her attempt at describing the events of the Turner case.

Turner was a freshman swimmer at Stanford at the time of the events in question. In March of this year, he was convicted of two charges of sexual assault and one charge of assault with intent to rape.

Two weeks ago, Turner was sentenced to six months in a county jail. This has produced a massive reaction from people who feel that the sentence is too lenient.

Each reader can assess that claim. We were struck by Roberts' description of Turner's conduct on the night in question.

According to Roberts, Turner "drag[ged] a woman so drunk she [could] not move behind a dumpster," where the assault occurred. This account is colorful and moving but, as far as we know, no one has ever said that this is what occurred.

Roberts' description appeared in the fourth paragraph of an essay in the Sunday Washington Post. In theory, her copy passed through the hands of an experienced editor at one of the nation's most elite newspapers.

In itself, Robert's description of what occurred on the Stanford campus that night is a mere blip on the screen. Little or nothing will turn on her claim, which is thrilling but rather vague, and doesn't seem to be journalistically accurate.

That said, her claim is part of a fascinating journalistic culture in which facts are embellished, invented and disappeared in service to high moral certainties. The Turner case has provided the latest examples of this familiar culture, which has suffused the journalism of the past twenty-five years.

A recent college graduate apparently embellished the known facts. When she did, an older editor let it go--or who knows? Maybe the editor amended a more careful statement by Roberts!

What actually happened at Stanford that night? Journalists have been omitting and semi-inventing facts in service to the moral greatness of the story they want to tell. We'll explore this familiar culture all week, looking at the work of major journalists and high-ranking professors.

Tomorrow, though, we'll start with the Stanford provost. We'll start by asking a basic question:

If we're so upset about this, why isn't he in jail?

Tomorrow: The provost and campus culture

18 comments:

  1. The proposal in CA is to bring its definition of rape into line with that of the FBI and the majority of other states by considering penetration by an object to be rape, not simply sexual assault. It is not debating affirmative consent. That fact seems to have escaped this intern.

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    1. Does the penetration by an object occur in the basketball lane? Up the middle of the football field? Actually,I had not heard ANYTHING related to what you said, and I thank you for it but... the PROBLEM is clearly how people talk about these things and the parsing of language. I think we all know what rape is... until SOME LAW defines it differently from one jurisdiction or fish wrap to the next. The last I saw, the SAME heinous act occurred at Vanderbilt. Sorry, I am out on it all except at... BAYLOR!

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    2. The problem is not how we talk about these things. It is that our society lacks the will to prosecute and imprison men for the crimes they commit against women.

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    3. If men had the babies, access to abortions would be in the Bill of Rights.

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    4. "If men had the babies, access to abortions would be in the Bill of Rights."

      LOL

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  2. Off topic:

    How much money does the bosses of our TV journos make off of the adverts of the campaigns that they are covering?

    Why do all of the reports about how much the campaigns are spending never refer to who pockets that money?

    Seems like a big circle of mutual benefit. You know who isn't in that happy roundabout? You and me, brother and sister. You and me.

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  3. Whether a rape is conducted by a dumpster or not it is still wrong. The point of the dumpster was to keep the reader's attention. It's crude and shocking and it worked. Very French way to write, so be it.

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    1. You don't make up facts, material or not, when reporting news, even to keep the reader's attention. You lose reader trust that way, misinform people and muddy discussion. This is an issue that matters, not a daily dose of reader entertainment.

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  4. Bob.. Hey, Bob Somerby. Yeah. You.

    Read this.

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/08/us/stanford-rape-victim-statement.html

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    1. I read it. I assume Bob read it. Do you have a point? With the posturing intro and the imperative mood verb, I assume you do.

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    2. You certainly don't. And I make no assumptions.

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    3. Of course David has a point: That you @11:46 operate like a douchebag rather than like a person making a point in a good-faith argument.

      David was just too polite to use the term douchebag.

      No reason for that politeness; as you make clear in your @6:00 rejoinder you merit the derision.

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  9. Turner was a freshman swimmer at Stanford at the time of the events in question. In March of this year, he was convicted of two charges of sexual assault and one charge of assault with intent to rape.

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  10. Not that there's anything wrong with it! By normal standards, the Sunday, hard-copy Washington Post would seem to be a high platform for the work of someone so young. In this case, though, Roberts was writing from the younger person's perspective about a topic which is being widely debated on the nation's many malfunctioning campuses.
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