The New York Times published:

Mr. Nifong made his statement at a hearing in which the judge rejected a defense request that prosecutors provide detailed accounts...

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New Timeline by Prosecutor in Duke Case Responded to by Anastasia Webb

Dear New York Times Editor,

You barely have to read one sentence in the article 'New Timeline by Prosecutor in Duke Case' to see the very apparent bias in the writer's reporting. A very similar article was written in the New York Post with less inherent bias. This is no longer shocking to me because I have seen many articles on sex crimes written with more fairness and integrity at the much criticized New York Post than the highly touted New York Times.

The writer suggests that the prosecution is up to trickery, when what they are likely doing is presenting a case not only solely based on testimony, but that will have to be strongly evidentially supported by someone whose experience of this crime was terrorizing, traumatic, and narrative defying in the extreme.  Meanwhile, the reporter keeps suggesting, ignorantly, that it is so unbelievable that while a woman is raped repeatedly, she would have a hard time keeping a close eye on her watch.  Please consider that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be gained by falsely reporting rape.  Simply reporting the crime is humiliating and frightful.  Next, the victim is subject to scrutiny and disbelief and must constantly prove that he/she is telling the truth lest the DAís office and police department suffer extreme embarrassment. If you continue to do no accurate research into these cases by not searching for the very valid reasons why victims of rape are subject to a confusing, horrific ordeal in the process of going to trial and seeking justice, then you will be certain that rape will continue to be an epidemic in this country, as well as its partner social illnesses: poverty, racism, classism, and domestic violence.  Is that what this newspaper wants?

If you have any remote desire to fairly report on this case, then it would behoove you to approach a professional who can testify as to the nature of a victimís response to sexual assault.


Anastasia Webb.