"We wrote editorials very early on criticizing the misinformation and mischaracterizations of Duke [that appeared in national news accounts]. It was not the Duke that we knew," said Ryan McCartney, the Duke senior who was an editor at the campus paper during the infamous rape scandal.

McCartney participated in a lively rehash this afternoon at the Society of Professional Journalists Conference in Washington of the highs and lows (mostly lows) of news coverage of the 2006 case that ended with the disbarment of rogue prosecutor Mike Nifong.

McCartney said he and his colleagues at The Chronicle knew early on that the case had big problems, and they shared their skepticism with the big-time correspondents from New York and Los Angeles who parachuted into Durham to cover the scandal.

The out-of-towners leaned on the student journalists for background, McCartney said -- then ignored what the young reporters had to say.

"The reporter from Rolling Stone was another example. I remember speaking with her at length. We told her very different versions of what eventually appeared in the magazine. We were very surprised by that," he said.

KC Johnson, the writer behind Durham-in-Wonderland, a blog that became a must-read for reporters, prosecutors and attorneys as it meticulously chronicled the unraveling case, sat on the panel with McCartney.

He said he had never intended to become a media critic until he realized that some major news organizations covering the case had no intentions of correcting flawed or slanted reports.

He saved his sharpest jabs for the Gray Lady: "It became apparent that bloggers knew far more about this case than the reporters from the New York Times."

Ted Vaden, public editor of the Raleigh News & Observer, said his paper was challenged by the aggressive way that bloggers covered the story, but, he adds, "a lot of the blogging was irresponsible, and that drove us, too."

He reminded the journalists in the audience that, in hindsight, it's easy to second-guess the decisions that drove coverage in 2006. It's harder make those news judgments on deadline.

If we learn anything, he says, it's this: "Everyone loves a good narrative, a good story. But narratives aren't news."

-- David Eldridge, managing editor, WashingtonTimes.com