Selective Outrage

Radley Balko | December 13, 2006

North Carolina GOP Rep. Walter Jones is calling for a federal investigation of prosecutor Mike Nifong, the man bringing the case against the Duke University lacrosse players. Conservative congressman calls for federal investigation of overzealous prosecutor? Outstanding!

I for one welcome the sudden interest of the world's Joneses, Limbaughs, Hannitys, and Savages in important issues like prosecutorial misconduct, the rights of the accused, and mob justice. And though the lacrosse team seems to me to be a bunch of spoiled, bigoted boors, I happen to agree that in this case, they're also getting railroaded.

I just wonder where the team's stalwart defenders on the right have been all this time. Certainly they don't believe this is the first time a prosecutor has ever overstepped his bounds, or the first time politics has trumped justice to the detriment of the accused. Why the sudden interest in criminal justice? Why has this case so stoked their outrage?

I think I might have a theory. But I'm just askin'.