Presumed Guilty - Groundbreaking new book

A superb new book shows how trumped-up charges exposed faults in some of America's grandest institutions.

ON THE night of March 13th 2006, 47 lacrosse players at Duke University, North Carolina, paid a couple of strippers to entertain them. Things went badly from the start. The girls arrived late. One of them, Crystal Mangum, was so drunk that she could not utter a coherent sentence. Her “dance” lasted four minutes. But over the next few days a sordid evening mutated into a life-ruining tragedy. Ms Mangum alleged that some of the players had beaten and gang-raped her. And the full force of the American legal system and media machine was deployed against a group of young men who were presumed to embody all the evils of America's demons of racism and sexism. The students Ms Mangum accused are white: Ms Mangum is black.

The accusation was a transparent lie from the start.

Source: The Economist

I can't wait to get a copy of this book. I think its about time someone dealt with the blatant panic the media cause whenever something "shocking and tragic" happens, using a contemporary case study.

The media jump on a story like a hurricane, throwing whatever they like into the mix, ruining people's lives, then when they get bored or something new comes along, they whirl off and the victims are left behind to try and salvage their lives.

More Information

[edit on 16-9-2007 by DragonsDomain]

I did not believe the womans story from the start, but I did watch intently as the media jumped all over this case, adding their twist to the investigation. By day 2 of the media blitz, they already had them convicted, all of the female advocates were out in full force, and every lawyer jumped in with "evidence" against them. As the days turned into weeks, and then months, those same lawyers had egg on their face as the womans story changed more times in one day that people change underwear in a week. I think it's high time that a book of this sort comes to surface!