The Bell Does Not Toll For Thee

I don’t mean for this blog to be about bashing the media, or bashing anything at all really, but this issue is somewhat related to the first one and I’ve been thinking about it for a while:

Sometimes the media protects their own, sometimes they unwittingly protect the ones they cover…

This is a touchy subject, but one that I think needs to be addressed. There is a very famous NFL player who has to sit out some games to begin the season. He’s a player with a somewhat checkered past. This isn’t even the first time he has been accused of something like this. Yet, he may be the luckiest player in the NFL. Not lucky because of anything he’s done, but lucky because of the attention placed on his life. Those who chronicle his life alter it remarkably. Often, he resents these people, but in this case they saved him. Their mere presence allowed him to move past one of the most damning experiences of his life. A time in his life that he wished to keep quiet was forgotten because so many wanted to talk about it. Gossip killed justice.

In this case, it appears that the relentless and selfish pursuit of the scoop got in the way of the noble pursuit of justice. Is that the media’s fault or the fault of the audience? Do they fulfill a public hunger for knowledge or do they prepare an unhealthy buffet that we can’t resist? Either way, a star gets to return to his life of fame and fortune and a woman gets to return to the anonymity she so desired. But in exchange for what?

Maybe nothing criminal happened, maybe the worst happened. We will never know. We will never know because we all wanted to know and they were more than eager to tell us.

Note: "The Smoking Gun piece reveals that the lawyer for the accuser wrote a letter asking prosecutors not to pursue the case any further.

The attorney wrote:

'What is obvious in looking forward is that a criminal trial would be a very intrusive personal experience for a complainant in this situation, given the extraordinary media attention that would be inevitable.'" (nowpublic.com)