On courtroom media; or, guilty until proven innocent, and even then...
...so, Casey Anthony has been acquitted in the murder of her daughter Caylee.
I have just two thoughts about the verdict, and the case as a whole.
First, why was this even news, let alone getting 24/7 HLN coverage? Actually, I know the answer to that: Missing White Girl Syndrome. Caylee was a cute little 3-year-old girl who went missing for a month before her body was found. Had she been found quickly, the media, especially, probably would not have batted an eyelash. But other than that, I don't have a single real reason why she should be national news. Neither Caylee nor Casey were particularly famous, and other than the mystery, the actual murder was, unfortunately as this sounds, run-of-the-mill. In fact, I'm pretty sure had this never been in the news, Casey Anthony would be in prison for her murder now.
But she's not, and that dovetails into my second thought: The media still hasn't learned its lessons from...my goodness, was the O.J. murder trial really 15 years ago? And my big question is, will they ever?
You'll recall that the media, in their race to the ratings, basically made sure you knew that O.J. was fully guilty. Sure, some of the things O.J. did made him much more circumspect, but the media made sure the court of public opinion was overwhelmingly against him, so much so that the black community backlash was huge...it turned into a blacks vs. whites trial, and the video of the celebrations when he was acquitted was shown for all to see. I'm sure many of those celebrating are somewhat abashed at doing that at the time...but make no mistake, the sensationalism of the media (which I won't call "librul" here, because here the only agenda it was pushing was ratings) pretty much led to the shock of the acquittal. It was a travesty of justice, say the same talking heads who pretty much guaranteed his conviction.
And they never did learn from what they had wrought, did they? In fact, they kept it up. They did it to Robert Blake, Phil Spector, Kobe Bryant, the Ramseys, etc. At the very least, the jury cooperated on Spector, but Blake was acquitted, Kobe's case was thrown out (and Ben Roethlisberger's two cases were as well), the Ramseys have never been charged. But, invariably, in all of these cases, the media has gotten the court of public opinion's conviction before the opening statements were even made. They did it here, too...and they were wrong again.
But the media never learns. In fact, in these sorts of cases, it's gotten worse: Nancy Grace was merely a prosecutor in Georgia when O.J. was being tried, and she was playing as fast and loose with the law as a prosecutor as she would eventually be on CourtTV and HLN. One of her cases ended in a mistrial because of her conduct, and one of her murder convictions was overturned due to the sparseness of the evidence...and again, her conduct. This was the woman CourtTV thought would make a great court analyst...and in a way, she has been. At least, to the media's definition of "great": More ratings. But those ratings, of course, came at a price: A loss of journalistic integrity. Everyone was guilty according to Grace, even in cases where they obviously weren't. It got worse when she moved to HLN and become the master of Missing White Girl Syndrome. Her interview with the mother of a missing boy, where she all but accused the woman of being part of her son's abduction, was a chief contributing factor to her suicide. She basically convicted the Duke lacrosse players of rape...and was absent from her show the day after they were cleared of all charges. Hell, she even made Elizabeth Smart uncomfortable in her interview, and she was a kidnapping victim, for God's sake.
In short, the media have graduated from the level of journalism in the O.J. trial...to Nancy Grace level. Everyone is guilty in their eyes, no matter what. It's "shocking" when someone is declared not guilty, or has charges dropped against them, because the media makes sure you know about all their faults and foibles, and thus you believe them, too. Even my own mother, who is usually smarter than this, thinks Kobe Bryant "got away with murder"...despite being charged with rape.
That's why, contrary to most people, I generally err on the side of innocence...like the law should. On the other hand, most people believe that every celebrity gets away with crimes with impunity...so they believe the media when they tell them they're guilty. Which is a contributing factor to why this sort of thing is so popular...and yet another step downward on the road to the abyss of journalistic integrity.
I have just two thoughts about the verdict, and the case as a whole.
First, why was this even news, let alone getting 24/7 HLN coverage? Actually, I know the answer to that: Missing White Girl Syndrome. Caylee was a cute little 3-year-old girl who went missing for a month before her body was found. Had she been found quickly, the media, especially, probably would not have batted an eyelash. But other than that, I don't have a single real reason why she should be national news. Neither Caylee nor Casey were particularly famous, and other than the mystery, the actual murder was, unfortunately as this sounds, run-of-the-mill. In fact, I'm pretty sure had this never been in the news, Casey Anthony would be in prison for her murder now.
But she's not, and that dovetails into my second thought: The media still hasn't learned its lessons from...my goodness, was the O.J. murder trial really 15 years ago? And my big question is, will they ever?
You'll recall that the media, in their race to the ratings, basically made sure you knew that O.J. was fully guilty. Sure, some of the things O.J. did made him much more circumspect, but the media made sure the court of public opinion was overwhelmingly against him, so much so that the black community backlash was huge...it turned into a blacks vs. whites trial, and the video of the celebrations when he was acquitted was shown for all to see. I'm sure many of those celebrating are somewhat abashed at doing that at the time...but make no mistake, the sensationalism of the media (which I won't call "librul" here, because here the only agenda it was pushing was ratings) pretty much led to the shock of the acquittal. It was a travesty of justice, say the same talking heads who pretty much guaranteed his conviction.
And they never did learn from what they had wrought, did they? In fact, they kept it up. They did it to Robert Blake, Phil Spector, Kobe Bryant, the Ramseys, etc. At the very least, the jury cooperated on Spector, but Blake was acquitted, Kobe's case was thrown out (and Ben Roethlisberger's two cases were as well), the Ramseys have never been charged. But, invariably, in all of these cases, the media has gotten the court of public opinion's conviction before the opening statements were even made. They did it here, too...and they were wrong again.
But the media never learns. In fact, in these sorts of cases, it's gotten worse: Nancy Grace was merely a prosecutor in Georgia when O.J. was being tried, and she was playing as fast and loose with the law as a prosecutor as she would eventually be on CourtTV and HLN. One of her cases ended in a mistrial because of her conduct, and one of her murder convictions was overturned due to the sparseness of the evidence...and again, her conduct. This was the woman CourtTV thought would make a great court analyst...and in a way, she has been. At least, to the media's definition of "great": More ratings. But those ratings, of course, came at a price: A loss of journalistic integrity. Everyone was guilty according to Grace, even in cases where they obviously weren't. It got worse when she moved to HLN and become the master of Missing White Girl Syndrome. Her interview with the mother of a missing boy, where she all but accused the woman of being part of her son's abduction, was a chief contributing factor to her suicide. She basically convicted the Duke lacrosse players of rape...and was absent from her show the day after they were cleared of all charges. Hell, she even made Elizabeth Smart uncomfortable in her interview, and she was a kidnapping victim, for God's sake.
In short, the media have graduated from the level of journalism in the O.J. trial...to Nancy Grace level. Everyone is guilty in their eyes, no matter what. It's "shocking" when someone is declared not guilty, or has charges dropped against them, because the media makes sure you know about all their faults and foibles, and thus you believe them, too. Even my own mother, who is usually smarter than this, thinks Kobe Bryant "got away with murder"...despite being charged with rape.
That's why, contrary to most people, I generally err on the side of innocence...like the law should. On the other hand, most people believe that every celebrity gets away with crimes with impunity...so they believe the media when they tell them they're guilty. Which is a contributing factor to why this sort of thing is so popular...and yet another step downward on the road to the abyss of journalistic integrity.