IABC Café

Well, wasn’t that an interesting turn of events? The world stopped for a few moments to hear what a jury of Michael Jackson’s peers (OK, in theory) had to say about the allegations against him. Was anyone particularly surprised by the verdict? If they were, they probably should not have been - but that is another story.

What I found most interesting about the entire Jackson mess is the phenomenon of “trial by media” that much of North America has fallen into. As journalism has moved from presenting information to presenting infotainment, the trial by media phenomenon has taken off like gangbusters. From my possibly naive position behind the coffee press, I long for the days of innocent until proved guilty in a court of law (sorry, too many episodes of Law and Order).

I don’t pretend to understand this phenomenon but my gut tells me there is something seriously wrong with the approach - for the accused, for the legal process and, ultimately, for the long-term viability of the rule of law. The media say they are only presenting what the public wants. Which, if true, is a sad commentary in and of itself. In the meantime, I guess its off to the next allegations. There is a lot of air time to fill.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 11:15 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.