Durham's portrayal bugs council

Durham leaders lashed out Thursday at the way they see the city being portrayed in the national media -- a stereotypical small Southern town where conflict over race and class dominates daily life.

"They provide no history, no context," said City Council member Mike Woodard, deriding what he called the "parachute journalists" who have come to the city in the wake of rape accusations stemming from a March 13 party at the home of three Duke University lacrosse team captains. "Every day, hundreds, I dare say thousands, of people in this community are working to build bridges."

Before banks of video cameras and scores of scribbling reporters at a work session, some council members expressed discomfort at the lack of subtlety and balance in the media coverage.

On several national television news programs, video of Duke's gothic West Campus -- more than a mile from the more architecturally subdued East Campus near where the party occurred -- cuts straight to rows of crumbling mill houses where some of the city's poorest residents live.

Durham is repeatedly referred to as a "working-class" or "blue-collar" town, despite being home to cutting-edge pharmaceutical and technology companies and boasting among the highest median household incomes in North Carolina.

There are some uncomfortable truths exposed in the media spotlight. Durham has the highest rate of poverty in the Triangle. It has the highest per capita murder rate among the state's 10 largest cities, two years running.

The discussion, planned for at least three days, was not placed on the council's printed agenda -- meaning members of the public could be barred from speaking due to the body's procedural rules. As the politicians spoke, the mother of a teenager slain in a drive-by shooting last year sat silently holding photos of her dead son, including one showing him in his casket. A young girl sitting with her held up a hand-lettered sign that read: "Durham Isn't Safe."

A couple hours earlier, representatives from the state and local NAACP, clergy and the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People held a news conference in front of the county courthouse near City Hall.

"The entire world is watching Durham and North Carolina," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP.

(Staff writer Anne Blythe contributed to this report.)