Fox News is carrying live, the testimony of Reade Seligmann concerning the experience of being falsely accused of rape.

It is very emotional testimony.

He describes the experience of being shunned on campus, betrayed by classmates (a study partner accused the Duke players of bring the country back to the days of Jim Crow...), having to change his habits and generally feeling besieged even before actual charges were filed. What strikes me is how easily the media can isolate a person or a group, or rather how easily stupid people accept what they hear from them.

When the actual charges were laid, Seligman describes it like death. As he is relating this experience, he is crying. His mother his crying, and I imagine anyone who went through this with him would be crying to.

For Mike Nifong, this was merely his job and perhaps a political opportunity, but Seligmann's testimony makes it clear how unbelievably cruel it was.

It occurs to me that the entire situation is a reflection on the monstrous cyncism that goes into creating political polarization, whether its race-baiting or anything else--there is the full realization that people's lives will be destroyed in the pursuit of political advantage. You have to be one cold sonofabitch to engage in this kind of crap with knowledge that you are accusing innocent people.