Duke lax media offensive

Fans of Duke lacrosse are running full page ads re-proclaiming the hard work and general good citizenship of the lacrosse team. In the Wall Street Journal today (Monday 6/4/07) is tis full page ad headlined: "For a team very few people stood by, how about a standing overation?" The text goes on to say: "Against all odds ... focus of one of the most unfair, unforgiving and unfortunate media spectacles in our nation's history ... banded together ... team GPA of 3.4 and a 100% graduation rate for the fourth year in a row [okay, that's pretty good] ... over 570 community service hours [no mention of how many the years before] ... " The bottom line headline of the ad reads, "2007 National Championship" and unless memory serves incorrectly a week later, that's the game Duke played in, not won.

The Duke fans proclaim their innocence, the more they're begging the woofing gods for a further and deeper look at the two halves of Duke lacrosse through 2006: three of the 47 (?) players wrongly accused of a serious crime and all, many, the majority, a lot of them involved in excessive ill-mannered behavior.

But, hey, 3.4 GPA and everyone graduating isn't bad.

They also took out a full-page ad in the N.Y. Times. Quite touching.

dbilmes
They also took out a full-page ad in the N.Y. Times. Quite touching.

and USA Today. And the Washington Post. And the Raleigh & Durham papers. $400,000 for the city-based papers and $106,400 for the USA Today ads. I can't think of a better way to piss away money.

[www.charlotte.com]

I wouldn't have minded if the cash had gone to something worthwhile like a scholarship named after the Duke Lax team or some community programs in order to do a real attempt of community healing. "Please like them" ads? Pushes me the other way.

Perhaps the purchasers weren't watching the games where the press and crowd were overwhelmingly cheering on Duke.

I wouldn't really have a problem with this if the ad didn't outright lie about the outcome of the national championship game.

Overcompensating.

Great subject line. Is that last word a noun or an adjective?

MOBalum
Great subject line. Is that last word a noun or an adjective?

I was thinking the same thing.

540 community service hours is pretty good for one person working off a first-offense DUI. Divided among four dozen players and maybe some team managers, that's one Saturday and Sunday a person in the past year.

billhoward
540 community service hours is pretty good for one person working off a first-offense DUI. Divided among four dozen players and maybe some team managers, that's one Saturday and Sunday a person in the past year.

And I suspect those hours were put in because Coach Danowski required them to do it.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
540 community service hours is pretty good for one person working off a first-offense DUI. Divided among four dozen players and maybe some team managers, that's one Saturday and Sunday a person in the past year.

And I suspect those hours were put in because Coach Danowski required them to do it.

Community service is a requirement these days for being a seemingly good citizen. There must be 50 kids in our town who've been to Guatemala or Honduras to build Habitat for Humanity houses. I'm sure it's out of the charity in their hearts, not because it's a checklist kind of thing for your college application or because there will also be some hot looking girls on the trip also working on improving their curriculum vitae.

Things on Mike Nifong's To-Do List:

[www.littlefivers.com]