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With the Duke case collapsing, Liestoppers, an anonymous group that has helped greatly to show that there was no rape, much less a gang rape, and produced in very short order a devastating rebuttal to the pitiful attempt of The New York Times to provide a veneer of respectability to a deplorable prosecution, decided to conduct a "Hag of the Hoax" contest. Don't expect a Marine to be pleased with the cartoon promoting that "Miss HOH" contest . Especially a female Marine.

On August 30, Liestoppers announced the contest on its homepage (www.liestoppers.blogspot.com/):

"With the approach of Labor Day, the annual return of that great American tradition,.. the Miss America Pageant... comes to our minds. LieStoppers is not sexist, but, in a chivalrous way, we seek to recognize several media damsels who stand tall above the crowd in their reporting on this case.

"In that spirit, LieStoppers is proud to announce its own 'Beauty is a Beast Contest':

Miss Hag of the Hoax 2006.

"Miss HOH, as we call her fondly, must be no ordinary media star! No, she must possess certain outstanding abilities, and her reporting on the Duke Hoax must exhibit some, if not all, of the following characteristics:

An ability to continually misinform the public on basic facts of the case

A malicious contempt for accuracy

Mean-spirited flights of fancy

Vengeful viperous behavior"

The article then strongly and factually makes the case for the first candidate, Wendy Murphy.

Unfortunately, the article is illustrated with a cartoon that calls to mind Ryan McFayden's tasteless email after that off-campus Duke Men's Lacrosse Team party last March.

  The text in the cartoon is: "We are looking for A Few Good Women Are you ready?"

Seated behind a desk is a female is a female, in pink, who looks like Miss Piggy. 

In front of the desk is a manic male figure, holding a broom horizontally.

Of course, the not so subtle suggestion is that the male figure holding the broom is asking the Miss Piggy female if she's ready.

There was no rape, with or without a broom, at the lacrosse party. But it was NOT a party of which either hosts or attendees could be proud.  The entertainment was strippers.  At least one suggestion was vile.  Some language was reprehensible.

Mr. McFayden's attempt to find humor in that party that never should have happened and share it with teammates in an email that became public was a great gift to those out to railroad Duke lacrosse players for imaginary crimes.

The cartoon is not funny either.

I have little positive and much negative to say about Wendy Murphy, especially with respect to the Duke case, but I would never call her a hag ("an ugly, slatternly, or evil-looking old women").  Ms. Murphy's problem is not her looks and focusing on them is counterproductive.

Also, Miss HOH sounds like Ms. Ho  And ho is the African American vernacular slang contraction for whore.  HOH is Liestoppers' acronym for Hag of the Hoax (as well as the acronym forHead of Household).  An appropriate title is needed for the contest.

The Liestoppers case that Ms. Murphy is wrong, even willfully wrong, about the Duke case is very powerful, but calling her a hag or a ho is out of order, and counterproductive. 

Liestoppers claiming not to be sexist and to be chivalrous does not make it alright.

Michael J. Gaynor

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Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.

Copyright © 2006 by Michael J. Gaynor
All Rights Reserved.

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