Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 1,820
Sadly for the shallow lying media, good citizens still exist and have power.
"..The Anthony case has been at the center of the most recent American media frenzy, by now a thoroughly predictable and deplorable phenomenon. Cable television talk show hosts, such as Nancy Grace of CNN’s Headline News, did everything in their power over the course of months to blacken Anthony’s name and bring about her conviction. These are scoundrels without a shred of decency.
...
In the course of the trial, which began May 9, the prosecution attempted to paint Casey Anthony in the darkest colors, as a neglectful mother and loose woman, but in the end, as Judge John Carroll, Dean of the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama, pointed out, “they couldn’t prove when the child was killed, or who killed the child, or exactly how the child was killed.”
The jurors, to their credit, applied law and reason, not emotions, to reaching a verdict. They proceeded conscientiously, considered the instructions they had been given, and weighed the very serious outcome of finding Casey Anthony guilty when no conclusive proof had been presented that a crime had even occurred.
The tabloids and cable channel hosts, such as Grace, are not interested in “justice” in any modern, evolved sense of the word. Their conception is a quasi-religious one, rooted in vengeance and vindictiveness. Why not reinstitute trial by combat or trial by ordeal? Asked about Grace in an interview on ABC News Thursday, juror Jennifer Ford remarked, “I have no comment on Nancy Grace ... it’s not fit for television.”
...
The jurors’ decision, seemingly a sensible and rational one, took the legal and media establishment by surprise. It was something of a slap in the face for them. Having let loose the cable television and tabloid bloodhounds against Casey Anthony, they expected the jury to fall into line. The twelve men and women, to their credit, exercised some independent judgment.
..
The death penalty is a barbaric measure. To propose executing an individual largely on the basis of supposition and conjecture would be an especially egregious miscarriage of justice. The prosecutors and media talking heads had no difficulty with that, but the jury members did. As defense attorney Jack Crawford bluntly observed, “the commentators on TV were looking for the right vein to hook up the lethal injection needle … A lot of folks had her convicted, but the twelve people that mattered kept an open mind.”
Criminal cases such as Casey Anthony’s (or, alternately, sex scandals á la Anthony Weiner), with the orchestrated public “fascination” and, where applicable, “outrage” that surround them, have become one of the favored means by which the American ruling elite attempts to manipulate and debase popular opinion.
There is no shortage of mass anger and dissatisfaction in the US, whose principal source, in the final analysis, is the rapid deterioration and even breakdown of the conditions of everyday life. The monopoly of the political discourse by two right-wing, pro-business parties, impervious to popular suffering, precludes honest and healthy debate over any important social matter. Desperate to divert attention from the growing social disaster, the media seeks to provide seething discontent a malignant outlet.
full article, and many other excellent analyses at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/anth-j08.shtml
Comrade Stalin
"..The Anthony case has been at the center of the most recent American media frenzy, by now a thoroughly predictable and deplorable phenomenon. Cable television talk show hosts, such as Nancy Grace of CNN’s Headline News, did everything in their power over the course of months to blacken Anthony’s name and bring about her conviction. These are scoundrels without a shred of decency.
...
In the course of the trial, which began May 9, the prosecution attempted to paint Casey Anthony in the darkest colors, as a neglectful mother and loose woman, but in the end, as Judge John Carroll, Dean of the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama, pointed out, “they couldn’t prove when the child was killed, or who killed the child, or exactly how the child was killed.”
The jurors, to their credit, applied law and reason, not emotions, to reaching a verdict. They proceeded conscientiously, considered the instructions they had been given, and weighed the very serious outcome of finding Casey Anthony guilty when no conclusive proof had been presented that a crime had even occurred.
The tabloids and cable channel hosts, such as Grace, are not interested in “justice” in any modern, evolved sense of the word. Their conception is a quasi-religious one, rooted in vengeance and vindictiveness. Why not reinstitute trial by combat or trial by ordeal? Asked about Grace in an interview on ABC News Thursday, juror Jennifer Ford remarked, “I have no comment on Nancy Grace ... it’s not fit for television.”
...
The jurors’ decision, seemingly a sensible and rational one, took the legal and media establishment by surprise. It was something of a slap in the face for them. Having let loose the cable television and tabloid bloodhounds against Casey Anthony, they expected the jury to fall into line. The twelve men and women, to their credit, exercised some independent judgment.
..
The death penalty is a barbaric measure. To propose executing an individual largely on the basis of supposition and conjecture would be an especially egregious miscarriage of justice. The prosecutors and media talking heads had no difficulty with that, but the jury members did. As defense attorney Jack Crawford bluntly observed, “the commentators on TV were looking for the right vein to hook up the lethal injection needle … A lot of folks had her convicted, but the twelve people that mattered kept an open mind.”
Criminal cases such as Casey Anthony’s (or, alternately, sex scandals á la Anthony Weiner), with the orchestrated public “fascination” and, where applicable, “outrage” that surround them, have become one of the favored means by which the American ruling elite attempts to manipulate and debase popular opinion.
There is no shortage of mass anger and dissatisfaction in the US, whose principal source, in the final analysis, is the rapid deterioration and even breakdown of the conditions of everyday life. The monopoly of the political discourse by two right-wing, pro-business parties, impervious to popular suffering, precludes honest and healthy debate over any important social matter. Desperate to divert attention from the growing social disaster, the media seeks to provide seething discontent a malignant outlet.
full article, and many other excellent analyses at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/anth-j08.shtml
Comrade Stalin
