When Mark Obbie picked a topic last spring for a discussion panel in the fall, he wasn’t sure if anyone would still be talking about the Duke lacrosse scandal. However, it remains the subject of heated debate.

Syracuse University professors and legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick examined race, gender, class and the media’s role in publicizing the controversy on Tuesday. The Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media (IJPM) organized the panel, consisting of professors from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the College of Law and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

‘My colleagues felt very, very comfortable within minutes of the Duke allegations,’ said Lithwick, the senior editor for Slate.com. ‘They offered analysis of what happened there.

What gives us the temerity as citizens and as journalists to make those kinds of pronouncements in these kinds of cases?’

After each panelist gave an opening address, Obbie, director of the Carnegie Legal Reporting program at Newhouse, serving as moderator, asked the panel questions. Audience members were able to ask questions at the end of the panel discussion.

Tom Maroney, professor of law, cited the exact word of the law whenever the subject of legality came up. He said that a prosecutor is not allowed to make decisions based on his or her own political ambitions. Since the prosecutor was campaigning at the time of the allegations, this was clearly an important note.

Most prosecuted cases involve a black attacker or a white victim, according to figures provided by professor Linda Alcoff. She said a case with white attackers and a black victim is rare.

Alcoff began her opening address by listing what she called ‘known facts’ in the case, including the racial slurs leveled against the alleged victim by members of the lacrosse team.

‘It was a great discussion,’ Lithwick said. ‘There’s another prism through which to look at this. That isn’t what you get within one dimension.’

She said it was rare to talk respectfully and listen to others through so many co-disciplines.

The IJPM is a new campus program and is the first of its kind. It sponsors lectures, conferences and symposia dedicated to discussing law, politics and the media.

Bert Kaufman, a graduate assistant for IJPM and a third year joint-degree candidate in the College of Law and Newhouse, helped organize the event.

‘It strives to bring together professionals from the media, from law and from politics,’ Kaufman said. ‘Our events will bring scholars, journalists and public servants to talk about issues at the intersection of the judiciary, politics and the media. It’s an emerging field, and this program is the first of its kind.’

Raquel Laneri, a first-year master’s student in arts journalism, attended the panel and said she was a fan of Lithwick’s work. ‘I think Dahlia is awesome,’ she said. ‘She had very interesting things to say about the media’s role in covering court cases. I felt that it lost focus during the rest of the panel.’

Dante A. Ciampaglia, another first-year master’s student in arts journalism, had similar feelings.

‘It was nice to have an intelligent conversation outside the talking heads and the news,’ he said. ‘It lost focus at some points, but it was good to see cooler heads prevail.’

Published on September 19, 2006 at 12:00 pm