Despite the formidable efforts of cable news producers, tabloid-style newspapers and radio talkmeisters, evidence mounts that trial by media is a flawed form of justice.
Coverage of the ill-fated arrest of John Mark Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey murder is only the latest installment in “Media Mock Trial America” in which a condemning press verdict eventually is overturned by real events.
This time the media didn’t have very long to “try” the Karr case, although that didn’t stop cable pundits and even one major U.S. newspaper from proclaiming the case was solved. All this took place, of course, in the week-and-a-half before the Boulder County district attorney dropped the charges against Karr.
Unfortunately, only the abbreviated duration of the media speculation is different in the Karr case.
Nearly a decade ago, the media shined its white-hot spotlight on the wealthy Ramsey family from Boulder, Colo., whose 6-year-old beauty queen was murdered in her home. That spotlight never burned out and a cloud of suspicion hovered over the Ramseys as they struggled to put their lives back together — only to see the girl’s mother, Patsy, succumb to ovarian cancer this summer, just weeks before the first arrest in the case.
The relentless aspersions against John and Pasty Ramsey and even their young son, Burke, provided countless hours of airtime and column inches to gossipy pundits. Though none of the Ramseys was ever charged — indeed, each was eventually cleared by authorities — cable host Geraldo Rivera went so far as tohold a trial of the case — he called it a civil trial — on his television program.
In a 2001 interview with the authors of this article, Patsy Ramsey recalled her horror when she stumbled across this kangaroo court while channel surfing.
“I hadn’t watched TV in a long time, but that day I plopped down on the couch and flipped on the TV just as Cyril Wecht, this big expert from Allegheny County, was saying that the Boulder officials need to do what’s right,” she remembered. “And all of a sudden, I realized what’s happening. They’re talking about us. And I just lost it. I was crying. I went to bed for two or three days. I was just so upset about it.”
Ironically, shortly after Karr’s arrest, the media seemed to relish playing a sound bite from Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy who quoted John Ramsey as saying about Karr’s arrest, “Do not jump to conclusions. Do not jump to judgment. Do not speculate. Let the justice system take its course.” After the clip was played, guest pundits immediately did the very things John Ramsey admonished against.
Though Ramsey’s advice is sound, unfortunately it is not likely to be followed. Journalism often doesn’t work that way — at least not in recent times.
Lest we forget Richard Jewell, the security guard whose actions in July 1996 at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta saved countless lives. He faced media torment for months — indeed years — even after federal authorities cleared him of any wrongdoing in the bombing of the park.
Shortly after the explosion, the media focused their spotlight on Jewell as a suspect — indeed, the sole suspect — in the bombing.
Though Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to bombing the park and now serves life in prison, Jewell still battles one newspaper in civil court for stories that wrongfully fingered him and claimed he “fits the profile of the lone bomber.”
Others’ lives, like those ofLos Alamos research laboratory employee Wen Ho Lee and bioweapons researcher Steven Hatfill, have been turned upside down by “Media Mock Trial America.”
As Patsy Ramsey told us back in April 2001 when asked what advice she would give to journalists covering murders, “Don’t race to the deadline. It’s all about who gets there first and accuracy be damned.”
Patsy Ramsey, it seems, had developed a keen sense of the scoop mentality that pervades some journalism circles — the desire to get the story first and to beat the competition, with concerns about truth-telling taking a back seat.
It is a sad irony and a lesson lost that some in the news media treated John Mark Karr with the kind of guilty-until-proven-innocent mentality with which they treated the late Patsy Ramsey.
Robert D. Richards and Clay Calvert are professors of journalism and law at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa.
