The media have failed us.
Again.
And not just in terms of basic reporting and accuracy but in ways that leave us markedly worse off than we were before.
The press went wild recently over allegations that a Duke University volleyball player, Rachel Richardson, who is black, suffered racial discrimination during a match against Brigham Young University. More specifically, Richardson and her family allege someone in the BYU fan section repeatedly shouted the N-word at her whenever she went to serve the ball.
The largest and most powerful newsrooms in the nation couldn’t wait to get their hands on the story, amplifying Richardson’s claims tenfold.
“Duke volleyball player says BYU officials failed to stop racist heckling during game in newly released statement,” CNN reported.
Said the Washington Post, “Duke volleyball player: BYU response slow to racial slurs.”
“Racial slurs during college volleyball game leads to fan suspension,” reported the New York Times.
So excited were these news organizations to “report” the story that they neglected to investigate Richardson’s allegations. They abandoned all pretense of skepticism, a necessary element for all responsible journalism, and simply ran with the story as presented by Richardson and her family.
BYU, for its part, panicked and suspended a fan it suspected of hurling the abuse. The fan was singled out by Duke as the culprit.
The only problem with the media coverage and the university’s knee-jerk reaction is this: There is not a shred of evidence to support Richardson’s version of events. In fact, based on follow-up investigations performed by smaller news organizations after the original story went viral, it’s more likely it never happened. Not a single student or university employee can corroborate her claim. No amount of the copious audio and video evidence recorded during the match shows a fan shouting racial slurs.
Indeed, everything points in the opposite direction — that no one shouted anything of the sort at Richardson.
This all starts with Richardson’s godmother, Lesa Pamplin, who tweeted that her goddaughter suffered racist abuse during a match against BYU. It’s worth noting that Pamplin didn’t actually attend the game that evening.
The university responded immediately, releasing a statement saying, “We will not tolerate behavior of this kind.” BYU’s athletic director said later in his own statement, “Cougar Nation, we’ve got to be better, and we’ve got to have the courage to take care of each other and our guests at our BYU sporting events.” BYU women’s volleyball coach Heather Olmstead, for her part, said, “Racism in any form has no place at BYU.”
The next day, Richardson herself released a statement alleging explicitly racist behavior by BYU fans.
More specifically, she claimed she and her black teammates “were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match.” It’s a point in her favor that she informed Duke staff of the supposed abuse at the time, who then informed BYU officials. Ushers were dispatched to the stands during the game, tasked with finding the alleged perpetrator. Duke also sent its athletic administrator into the bleachers. However, neither the ushers nor the Duke employee said they heard racist insults. This is important because they were in the section where the heckling supposedly originated and during the period in which Richardson said it was at its worst. Yet, they apparently didn’t hear a thing.
Despite the obvious red flags, newsrooms couldn’t get enough of Richardson’s story.
The narrative as presented by the Duke athlete, with no additional reporting or any apparent attempt to corroborate the story, went unchallenged in the corporate press for about four days. Then, BYUconservatives, a conservative news and opinion organization on BYU’s campus, published a story strongly disputing all previous news reports. As it turns out, the small group had done what no one at CNN, the Washington Post, or the New York Times had bothered to do: They investigated a story.
The Cougar Chronicle searched for students who had attended the volleyball game — someone, anyone! — to corroborate the story. They found no one. They spoke specifically to students from the section where the slurs supposedly originated. Every single student interviewed said they heard no such language during the game, a game an estimated 5,700 people attended. This is fascinating considering members of the university’s men’s basketball team, many of whom are black, were in attendance in the same section as the alleged heckler. If someone did indeed shout racial slurs, one would think these gentlemen would have noticed or at least remembered.
Then, the Salt Lake Tribune released its own investigative report. It likewise found no evidence to support Richardson’s claim. Video evidence pulled from the dozens of cameras set up around BYU’s arena, including TV cameras, security cameras, and game footage cameras, show no incidents of racist heckling. This is important because BYU campus police confirmed the banned fan was on camera for the entirety of the match. Yet, no video shows the fan shouting racial slurs at Richardson and her black teammates. BYU’s athletic department, which also reviewed the arena footage, stated later that they found no evidence of the banned fan’s supposed wrongdoing.
Remember: Richardson said someone shouted the N-word every time she served and that the racist heckling only got worse as the game progressed. Yet, there is no video evidence of even one such incident.
Throughout the Salt Lake Tribune’s and Cougar Chronicle’s investigations, no one, not a fan, not members of the floor crew and athletic department, and not even members of Richardson’s own team, said they heard racist insults during the match.
An investigation by BYU itself found no evidence of a racist heckler. BYU reviewed an enormous amount of audio and video evidence. It also spoke with roughly 50 students. It concluded in a statement, “We have not found any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.”
BYU also reversed its ban on the supposed heckler, saying in a note of apology, “We have not found any evidence that that individual engaged in such an activity. BYU sincerely apologizes to that fan for any hardship the ban has caused.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean the Duke athlete is lying. It’s entirely possible Richardson simply misheard the fan section, which is fine. It’s fine if she is merely mistaken. But what excuse is there for major media to take her at her word, presenting a one-sided allegation as a statement of fact? What excuse is there for them to run the story as presented without doing so much as a fact check? Why did it fall to Cougar Chronicle and the Salt Lake Tribune to do the New York Times’s job?
Why, it’s almost as if these people want the story to be true. It’s almost as if they want it to be true that there are virulent racists walking among us, looking to taunt and oppress minorities at every turn. It makes sense. Bogeymen and terror are good for the press. Anger and fear drive clicks.
But it’s terrible for the rest of us who just want to live peaceable, happy, and harmonious lives.
Becket Adams is the program director of the National Journalism Center.
