Media responsibility??

[Mithrandir]

Why is the media allowed to print articles when someone is "accused" of a crime? Is there some reason like alerting the public to the potential of this person being dangerous?

There is an article in my local paper about a 32 year old guy accused of sexually assaulting a 7 year old girl. Now what if it comes out that he didn't do it? He will still be looked at as guilty by many people because of the article. Basically his life is ruined even if he is innocent. Can he sue the paper if it turns out that he wasn't guilty?

This happened to a father of a friend of mine. he was a teacher accused of indecency by a female student. Turned out she lied, but by that time he had quit his job, his mental health was shot, etc..

[Erik]

Arrests and indictments are news, like it or not, and are part of the public record, like it or not. That is why you can't sue a paper that reports on your arrest. The most responsible thing for news orgs to do is to follow the process through and report exonerations, retractions by accusers, and findings of innocence just as prominently as they reported arrests/indictments/juicy details that came out during the trial.

[heyelander]

I think the public bears some responsibility in not equating accusations or arrests with guilt. The media is reporting facts (was arrested) the public is turning that into guilt.

[Erik]

Hysteria mongers like Nancy Grace deserve some of the blame, too. She's the worst thing to happen to the American legal system since the Dred Scott decision.

[amcg]

We have a nice phrase in our part of the world: "[Person's Name] is helping the police with their inquiries"

[B-Fly]

Ultimately, the fact that the press and public can follow the workings of the criminal justice system is an important check on the government, but I agree that sensationalism in the early reporting around unsubstantiated allegations can be a major problem.

[Controller Jacobs]

I was wondering something similar recently, when it was revealed that NATO troops had accidentally burned a large number of Korans. People died over that. That story should have been buried, there was no public "need to know".