Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Brodhead, Colbert, and Questions

Richard Brodhead will be appearing Thursday night on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Let’s set aside the obvious: why would a group that wants to promote increased public support for the humanities select as its spokesperson a figure best known outside the academy for this disastrous appearance on 60 Minutes?

Instead, since Brodhead himself has said that he sees the interview as “a good chance to show off Duke,” perhaps Colbert could find the time to ask him why, in his first public appearance after their arrest, he said that even if Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were innocent, whatever they did was “bad enough.” Does he continue to believe what he told the Durham Chamber of Commerce in April 2006, and if not, why did he never retract or apologize for his remarks?

Some other items that remain unanswered:

(1) Why specifically did Brodhead and the Duke Board of Trustees demand Mike Pressler’s resignation in early April 2006? What did they expect the public reaction to their move to be? Did they recognize at the time that the forced resignation would likely be interpreted as a sign of the players’ likely guilt?

(2) When did Brodhead and the trustees first learn of the conduct of former SANE-nurse-in-training Tara Levicy? After so learning, what steps did the Duke leadership take to ensure that Levicy would not affect any additional sexual assault cases?

(3) What steps, if any, did the Duke administration take against either Wahneema Lubiano or the African-American Studies Department for their decision to improperly use Duke funds to pay for an ad denouncing the school’s students, and for their falsely claiming that numerous Duke departments officially endorsed the ad? If, as is widely believed, the university took no disciplinary steps on the matter, should Duke professors interpret this inaction as an implicit statement that Lubiano and her department really didn’t do anything wrong?

(4) Why didn’t Duke administrators reveal to the Coleman Committee the university’s then-secret arrangement with the city for Duke students—and only Duke students—to be prosecuted to the maximum for alcohol-related offenses?

(5) Does the university continue to stand by the Bowen/Chambers report as the best analysis for how the administration should have handled the case? If so, how can the university explain the millions of dollars in settlements and legal fees for administrators’ conduct that Bowen and Chambers ignored? If not, why did the university never elect to commission a Freeh Report-style white paper for Duke?

Somehow, I doubt any of these questions will get asked. And in the unlikely event they were asked, I can all but guarantee they would generate a non-responsive reply.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

people will be laughing at him not with him ... or at their stupid palor jokes ... or not at all since most are not (and never have been) amused

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately - as in the recent Zimmerman prosecution - the public fixes its opinions on its first impressions received from the print and TV media, which in both cases (Zimmerman and Lacrosse) was little removed intellectually from a lynch mob brandishing ropes outside the jailhouse.

Colbert will be banking on those first impressions in his 'humor', and not at all on the exonerating evidence presented at both trials.

Anonymous said...

Brodhead says he welcomes this opportunity! Is concerned because he says Colbert doesn't always 'stay on topic'. Doesn't he know Stephen is going to make mincemeat of him just like he has so many national congressional representatives.

I can't wait.

RL '75

Anonymous said...

Is Brodhead a communist?

Anonymous said...

KC, I am just reading Tom Wolfe's , "I am Charlotte Simmons" , and it (DuMont) certainly fits the picture of Duke
Corwin

Anonymous said...

Couldn't watch it last night because it came on at 11:30PM and I go to bed at 9:30PM. Anybody have a YouTube link?
Big Al

Anonymous said...

You can find the episode here:

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/thu-august-15-2013-richard-brodhead

Anonymous said...

Let's take a read of what the other blog that monitors Duke (though in a much less deranged manner) had to say about this:

http://dukecheck.com/

"Brodhead’s quick mind was on full display, as he squeezed Colbert out of the picture and produced several very articulate statements about the purpose of the commission and the role that humanities should play in our lives."

OH SNAP!

Anonymous said...

duke sucks

it sucks d dicks under s88theads leadership

Pussy masturbatory Cup said...

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Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Let's take a read of what the other blog that monitors Duke (though in a much less deranged manner) had to say about this:

http://dukecheck.com/

"Brodhead’s quick mind was on full display, as he squeezed Colbert out of the picture and produced several very articulate statements about the purpose of the commission and the role that humanities should play in our lives."

OH SNAP!

8/16/13, 10:19 AM






As they say, there's no reason to let the facts get in the way of a good narrative.

Anonymous said...

To the 8/16 9:35AM: thanks for the link.
To the 8/16 10:19AM: I agree with the quote. Colbert played into him and Brodhead hit a home run each time - almost like it was rehearsed.
I have seen other interviews like this where the guest had written a book and the host was pushing it by providing air time; never an unkind word about the book.

Big Al