How about Fox News calling Rachel Richardson a liar? Surely she’ll want to defend her name, right?
There’s a huge cost to false allegations even if the media is desperately trying to ignore this story. This is why my default position is skepticism with these claims.
You've made some good arguments to this point and while I may disagree with you on some of what you have said you certainly come across as someone worth hearing out. Thanks for that.
But to say that your default position is skepticism because Fox News wouldn't dare falsely allege something is either incredibly ignorant or ill-informed. They make stuff up all the time. All the time (most recently they face a billion dollar lawsuit from Dominion). The likes of Tucker and Hannity get off the hook because in court they tell judges that they are just entertainment and that nobody should see them as reporters.
So while I do enjoy reading an opposing take from someone who sounds sensible enough to listen to, this talking point hurts your credibility.
I think you missed the point. The point wasn't whether Fox News is reliable and accurate, it's that Fox News made an accusation by calling Richardson a liar and Richardson has made no rebuttal of that accusation. It was an accusation which would normally elicit a rebuttal from someone who was telling the truth. And not just a rebuttal but a defamation lawsuit. You can argue whether Richardson should bother with a response to FN or suggest that she may be consulting lawyers before responding but the veracity of FN isn't the point. The point is the veracity of Richardson.
Others also investigated it. The overwhelming problem is that there is not a shred of corroborative evidence despite video and audio of the entire game. If I recall the chronology, these accusations were first made by the athlete's godmother who has a social media history that isn't exactly credible. The godmother's claim, that the athlete was being loudly called racisl epithets every time she served were easily debunked. After the athlete herself put out a statement that racial heckling directed at herself and her teammates was taking place all game long, and that it grew in intensity and became threatening. Yet again no one else, including her own teammates, heard a thing and the video/audio evidence does not support what she claimed happened. Nor did a single person in the crowd corroborate these claims. And at the onset these claims seemed especially farfetched in the context of a college sporting event. They depend on a willful suspension of disbelief, that BYU is allegedly some special outlier. They essentially depend on bigotry to create the presumption of bigotry in others.
Let me get this straight. BYU conducts an investigation on itself and finds nothing.
Wow. The next time I'm accused if something, I will investigate myself and I will not find anything to corroborate or incriminate me.
A BYU investigation of itself is complete BS.
That's ridiculous. A lot of organizations investigate things within the organization, and often they hire independent investigators (I'll bet BYU hired a few here). If this actually occurred, BYU is heavily invested in making sure it doesn't happen again. You think the school likes having these racism allegations hanging around? You think this is advancing BYU's mission, whatever that may be? Even when BYU comes to the conclusion that it's a hoax, I'll bet they put some things in place to prohibit the alleged conduct (even if it didn't happen) and to make it easier to determine if it does (more cameras, security, etc.)
Further to that, any member of the main stream media was free to do their own investigation of the alleged incident, but chose not to. Recordings of the game were easily available, and any reporter could have interviewed people there that night, including the entire Duke Volleyball team. Instead, they chose to simply repeat the player and her family's narrative, despite the fact that not one member of her family was in attendance. I''ll give her the benefit of the doubt that she thought she heard a slur, but the facts just don't support her claim.
It's good practice these days to meet anything coming from the media with a heavy dose of skepticism. They don't deep dive into facts anymore, and a lot of what they churn out are just poorly disguised opinion pieces.
Further to that, any member of the main stream media was free to do their own investigation of the alleged incident, but chose not to. Recordings of the game were easily available, and any reporter could have interviewed people there that night, including the entire Duke Volleyball team. Instead, they chose to simply repeat the player and her family's narrative, despite the fact that not one member of her family was in attendance. I''ll give her the benefit of the doubt that she thought she heard a slur, but the facts just don't support her claim.
It's good practice these days to meet anything coming from the media with a heavy dose of skepticism. They don't deep dive into facts anymore, and a lot of what they churn out are just poorly disguised opinion pieces.
I’d bet a monthly mortgage payment that numerous media outlets investigated this diligently, hoping that it was true and looking for the slightest shred of evidence to support the claim.
I think you missed the point. The point wasn't whether Fox News is reliable and accurate, it's that Fox News made an accusation by calling Richardson a liar and Richardson has made no rebuttal of that accusation. It was an accusation which would normally elicit a rebuttal from someone who was telling the truth. And not just a rebuttal but a defamation lawsuit. You can argue whether Richardson should bother with a response to FN or suggest that she may be consulting lawyers before responding but the veracity of FN isn't the point. The point is the veracity of Richardson.
I know if I was accused of something I didn't do I would come out and say so. But, then again there could be this: "that's Fox news doing what they do, why bother" attitude which could be true and maybe they are getting ready to sue, but want to make sure they have their ducks in a row first before doing so and offering a quick rebuttal on CNN would do nothing to help them.
I'm not satisfied with the idea that nothing happened and definitely given the history of colleges and their interest in protecting themselves, not satisfied with BYU saying they found nothing,
But, I will offer this. If this turned out to be made up, there should be serious ramifications for those involved. If BYU has covered this up, they should face harsh consequences too.
I know if I was accused of something I didn't do I would come out and say so. But, then again there could be this: "that's Fox news doing what they do, why bother" attitude which could be true and maybe they are getting ready to sue, but want to make sure they have their ducks in a row first before doing so and offering a quick rebuttal on CNN would do nothing to help them.
I'm not satisfied with the idea that nothing happened and definitely given the history of colleges and their interest in protecting themselves, not satisfied with BYU saying they found nothing,
But, I will offer this. If this turned out to be made up, there should be serious ramifications for those involved. If BYU has covered this up, they should face harsh consequences too.
Oh, something happened for sure and I don’t know what it was exactly but it’s becoming clear to me that it wasn’t what Richardson claimed happened. Perhaps she heard heckling and contorted it into racist comments. Perhaps she’s being manipulated by her godmother. Perhaps it was all preplanned by the two.
You can be dissatisfied but there’s not a bit of corroborating evidence to support Richardson’s claims and surely SOMEONE would have come forward if racial comments were being made loudly enough for on court players to hear.
Interesting quote from Dawn Staley, the South Carolina basketball coach on the canceled series that she did her own personal investigation. Really? She flew out and interviewed the Duke staff and the people in the stands? It is okay to be wrong folks. Also a good idea to wait a bit before rushing to judgment.
are there racist students at BYU? yes. Just like there are at probably every school. Not that this is an excuse for being racist. It 100% isn't, but I think people are way too focused on calling BYU a racist school. It seems to me this is an isolated incident, that no one can prove even happened. No one on the Duke side said anything either, which is very interesting considering it was their own player supposedly being targeted.
also, No one is calling anyone a liar. BYU simply said after reviewing all the footage and talking to people in the stands, that the claim had not been corroborated. this was not to call anyone a liar, but they just banned someone from their events. Of course they had to investigate to make sure that this was justified. Of course when the allegation was made, the school reacted immediately because that is the right thing to do. If they are told that something like this has been done, of course they will address it immediately and try and make sure it doesn't happen again. Which the athletic director did based on the information he had at the time. But they also need to investigate before they just ban someone from games. which is why they came back out to share the results of the investigation.
This thread generates 288 posts in 12 days when BYU is falsely accused. I've been waiting 24 hours to see if anyone would call out Oregon but I guess not. Not a single post. And, unlike the Duke hoax, this one was caught on video several times and apparently heard during the ESPN broadcast.
This thread generates 288 posts in 12 days when BYU is falsely accused. I've been waiting 24 hours to see if anyone would call out Oregon but I guess not. Not a single post. And, unlike the Duke hoax, this one was caught on video several times and apparently heard during the ESPN broadcast.
