NEW YORK, N.Y. April 18 (DPI) – A swirling, damning – but hardly airtight – case of an alleged off-campus rape of a Florida State co-ed by a Seminole football player was the focus of a New York Times article Wednesday – a report that portrayed university officials and police investigators in Tallahassee as obstructionists to justice.
The 3,000 word article was far-reaching: It details the alleged incident based on a victim’s initial statement to police – later changed – and describes a lack of effort by investigators and absence of criminal charges. It even describes a second, unrelated rape of an FSU student, also not prosecuted, suggesting a culture of indifference to sexual assault at the Tallahassee school.
The athlete identified as the alleged rapist, quarterback Jameis Winston, was a freshman and largely unknown athlete at the time of the 2012 incident. After no charges were brought last year, he was reinstated to the team. He went on to win the Heisman Trophy and help the Seminoles win the national championship.
The story resonated with readers because of the widespread view that many universities deal with a high number of unreported sexual assaults, and because big-time sports at many schools distort priorities and empower supporters of sports programs. The Florida State Boosters, it was reported in the article, has a $125 million endowment, and that endowment helped pay the university president’s salary. The size of the sports fund – perhaps more than the primary story — came as bigger shock to many readers.
But the article also came across as a cultural attack: A major Yankee paper, which has written nothing about a high-profile, recent alleged sexual assault at Harvard – also with no charges made – went after Florida State simply because, in the view of some readers, big-time football seems to run the place.
Most of the 450 reader comments piled on Florida State and its easy-to-ridicule football-focused culture. But a few readers took exception with the article and the fact that the NYT largely ignored statements by the university, which defended itself vigorously in comments before and after publication.
This was among the most recommended reader comments:
I suppose every man needs a cause to rally around and for some, vilifying football and sports is as good as any.
Meanwhile, the Harvard case has percolated in some of the mainstream media:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sex-attack-victim-speaks-harvard-sets-task-force/story?id=23158583
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/3/31/Harvard-sexual-assault/
Even the NYT Editors’ Reader Picks seemed to reflect ambivalence about the premise of its own report on the FSU case:
This is a criminal matter that was investigated twice by institutions that are not named FSU. The NCAA only has jurisdiction over the actions of i’s member school. There is zero evidence that FSU was aware of or participated in a cover-up of any sort.
And the vast majority of people have made peace with Winston ever since the SAO investigation concluded. If the justice system that is in place to investigate these matters concludes that there is little evidence supporting the committal of a crime, then why can’t you and others be satisfied?
Another Editors’ Pick:
FSU has released a statement in response to this article. If the issues raised by FSU regarding its correspondence with the NYT are true then I have a grave issue with what I perceived to be the “Grand Dame” of printed journalism in this country resorting to 2nd rate journalistic tactics. FSU statement can be read in full http://fsunytimes.fsu.edu
A portion of the university’s statement is below:
In the case examined by The Times involving Jameis Winston, no university official outside the Victim Advocate Program received a report from any complainant naming Winston prior to when the allegations were made public in November 2013.
At no time has there been or is there now a complaint on record from a student referred to by the State Attorney’s Office. The university has been aware of the information in The Times article, however, and has fulfilled all of its legal obligations under Title IX.
The paper’s suggestion that FSU underreports sexual assaults is misleading. The campus statistics used by The Times to make that point do not account for the crucial fact that 83 percent of FSU’s students live off-campus, where incidents are handled by the Tallahassee Police Department and are not required to be reported as part of the university’s annual campus crime statistics. Despite this, the university provides full victim services to any student regardless of where he or she lives.
The Times has done its readers, as well as the FSU community, a disservice by omitting these answers and by seriously misrepresenting the university’s concern and care for its students who are victims of sexual assault.