Greedy Trial Lawyer
Trial By TV News, Verdict By Telephone Poll
Category: Seeing Clearly Now
Over at News Hounds I ran across a post about the latest trend in our criminal justice system - Duke Lacrosse Defendants Acquitted By FOX News.
Once again, FOX News, the network that president and CEO Roger Ailes claims "likes America," was doing its best last night to undermine one of the bedrocks of our country - the legal system. Without benefit of trial, judge or jury, FOX News has supplanted the courtroom for its television studio and rendered its own prime time verdict on the Duke rape defendants: Not guilty.As usual, Sean Hannity and FOX News reporter Megyn Kendall seemed to be jockeying for Best Acquittal Argument Disguised As News.
During this segment, I kept thinking, "Why bother with a trial?" and I was already planning my headline along that line when I was startled to hear Colmes say, "I have a great idea... Let's not have a trial. Let's do it right here on Hannity & Colmes."
I think that's exactly what has happened.
Coincidentally, within the last two weeks I watched in amazement as a prominent female news host on another network interviewed a cousin of the alleged victim of the rape. The cousin was not a witness to anything. And, to her credit, right at the start of the interview she announced that she had not spoken to the alleged victim since the incident. The news host pressed on for another several minutes extracting such newsworthy comments as "She is not the kind of person who would lie about something like this" and "She is a good person." I felt very relieved to have these assurances.
Have we arrived at the point where the TV network "news" programs will present such nonsense for, say, three months, and we then telephone our votes in to American Idol, excuse me, American Justice?
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