What I learned from the Duke Rape Scandal (continued)

The 88 loudest voices on campus are wing nuts. This is my own personal opinion. Back in my college days we learned, in various classes, how to make and support arguments. One of the first things I learned is that anonymous informants and anonymous quotations are very dangerous. To use one or two judiciously in your work might be justifiable, but to rely on only anonymous quotes and sources leads the reader to think that you made them up, or plagiarized your research or other negative responses from the reader. To that end, let’s look at the “Group”.

The “Listening ad” is the first and most egregious example of this. I will not debate the intent of the words written by Dr. Lubiano and any others who wrote it. I will however address the line in that ad that states as follows: “These students are shouting and whispering about what happened to the young woman and to themselves”. If you are shouting about unjust treatment, even using the most poetic and creative literary meaning of the word shout, I suspect anonymity is not your primary goal. The professors would have helped their cause(s) more if they could quote somebody and attribute that quote to a name and or a face. There are at least two quotes used by Dr. Chaffe in 2 separate articles that have eerily similar content and structure, but different specific meanings. This leads me to believe that Chaffe, Lubiano, and the group of 88 are, much like the Durham PD, manufacturing evidence. Go figure. There are quotes that are so carefully structured and phrased, that they sound more like a 50 year old college professor and not a 20 year old college coed. I will post some of the quotes in the next few days.