A black Duke volleyball player accused BYU fans of hurling racial slurs during a match.
After Duke women’s volleyball player Rachel Richardson alleged that she and her fellow black teammates had racial epithets hurled at them during an August 26 match against BYU, countless pundits rushed to condemn the university while straight-news reporters credulously parroted the student’s account in their coverage of the incident, despite the lack of corroboration.
In a statement of her own, Richardson charged BYU with having failed to act to protect her and her teammates — and the press followed suit.
After initially issuing an apology, BYU announced Friday that its investigation into the matter had not produced “any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.” According to the university, that investigation involved reaching out to “more than 50 individuals who attended the event” with affiliations with both schools and a review of “all available video and audio recordings, including security footage and raw footage from all camera angles taken by BYUtv of the match.”
Others did not take nearly so thorough an approach.
At CNN, Alisyn Camerota wondered aloud why only one fan had been initially banned from BYU’s campus (he has since been exonerated and apologized to by the university) since “Richardson said she heard more than one person using racial slurs toward the black players.” Later, during an interview with BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe, Camerota asked “what does it say about the BYU community and culture that this happened?”
Also on CNN, hosts Jim Acosta and Brianna Keilar blindly accepted the facts as Richardson offered them, with Acosta declaring that “a Duke volleyball player is speaking out after she and other black teammates were called racist slurs and threatened during a match against Brigham Young University on Friday,” and Keilar asserting that “A Division I volleyball match at Brigham Young University turned really ugly when black players from Duke University endured racial slurs from at least one fan in the crowd.“
Richardson’s claims were also featured prominently during an August 30 episode of ABC’s Good Morning America.
ABC News correspondent Janai Norman said she was “really impressed” with how the 19-year-old student was handling the situation.
“A lot of grace,” concurred host George Stephanopoulos.
The New York Times also ran with the story as told by only one of its participants, headlining its article on the incident “Racial Slur During College Volleyball Game Leads to Fan Suspension” and giving readers the impression that the atmosphere at the match might have easily resulted in racially motivated mob violence.
“Marvin Richardson, the father of the Duke volleyball player, said in an interview late Saturday that a slur was repeatedly yelled from the stands as his daughter was serving, making her fear ‘the raucous crowd’ could grow violent,” reported the Times, seemingly without having independently confirmed this account.
“B.Y.U., whose student population is less than 1 percent Black, has struggled with creating an inclusive environment for its students of color,” added breaking news reporter Vimal Patel.
ESPN also featured the incident prominently in its programming.
Stephen A. Smith, one of the sports media firm’s most visible personalities, launched into an angry on-air rant in which he accused the university of “dereliction of duty.”
“I’m saying BYU — you did it! By allowing this to happen and not addressing expeditiously, not addressing it with a level of quickness and speed that you should’ve addressed this with,” said Smith.
An interview with Richardson, conducted by Holly Rowe, featured prominently on ESPN’s Outside the Lines show. Rowe did not gather other accounts of the match from eyewitnesses, electing instead to allow Richardson to explain what had happened and how others should respond to the allegations. ESPN calls Outside the Lines “an Emmy Award-winning investigative series examines topical issues off the playing field.”
None of the aforementioned outlets acknowledged reporting by a student newspaper which quoted on the record sources denying that a racial slur was used. They also failed to cover BYU Police Lt. George Besendorfer’s announcement that an initial review of game footage failed to identify any perpetrators. ESPN and CNN updated their readers on the results of the BYU investigation on Friday, but the Times had yet to cover the university’s statement as of Friday afternoon.
CNN, the Times, and ESPN all failed to respond to requests for comment on their coverage of the story.
The University of South Carolina, which canceled a volleyball game against BYU over the incident, also did not respond when asked if they regretted the decision given the results of the BYU investigation.
Duke, for its part, did not acknowledge the investigation’s findings in a statement released after the results were announced.
“The 18 members of the Duke University volleyball team are exceptionally strong women who represent themselves, their families, and Duke University with the utmost integrity. We unequivocally stand with and champion them, especially when their character is called into question. Duke Athletics believes in respect, equality and inclusiveness, and we do not tolerate hate and bias. #HateWon’tLiveHere”