Wikipedia defines Yellow Journalism as follows:
“Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension "Yellow Journalism" is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion .”
The latest local political scandal involving the Cafaro family and certain public officials has once again garnered yellow journalistic headlines in the local paper. What are these folks doing?
My position is clear. No matter how inflammatory the indictment or bill of particulars, these are allegations, not statements of fact. Just because somebody said it happened doesn't make it so. The Vindicator knows that. Buzz words like conspiracy and bribery and perjury make for great headlines and may even sell a paper or two. But at the end of the day, this is a criminal proceeding in which both sides of the issue will be heard by a jury. Until that time, all of the parties are presumed to innocent until proven guilty. That isn’t a platitude. It is the bulwark of our criminal justice system. The Vindicator should tone it down a bit, especially under these circumstances.
Nobody wants corrupt public officials. But there is something more going on here. This isn’t open the fee drawer in a judge’s desk or look the other way while the mobsters are blowing up another car or taking bribes to allow trafficking in drugs. This looks more like politics bleeding into the criminal justice system. “We don't want Cafaro controlling Mahoning County” is not a legal argument. It’s a political argument.
Criminalization of political behavior is a dangerous game. Remember Scooter Libby? The government went on a multi-year witch hunt to find out who leaked that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Turns out the special prosecutor knew the answer almost from the beginning. Instead of stopping the investigation, the special prosecutor wasted millions upon millions of the taxpayers’ money harassing Bush appointees for political purposes; convicting Scooter Libby for perjury in an irrelevant interview a year after the Special Prosecutor should have ceased the investigation. Is that kind of justice you want?
Or Blago up in Illinois. Now there was an open and shut case. Dude, he walked!!! So much for all of the hype! It was political behavior. It might be unseemly and dirty, but the Feds couldn’t get the jury to agree it was illegal.
I don’t know how this is going to turn out. Almost all of these folks had stellar reputations in the community prior to these alleged "crimes." It may be everything the prosecution says it is, or it may turn out to be a political vendetta. I have read a portion of the indictments and the pleadings. In my opinion, this is much ado about nothing. Lot's of smoke, but not much fire. I might be proven wrong; but what if I’m right?
If it turns out these folks are innocent, where do they go to get their reputations back?
“Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension "Yellow Journalism" is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion .”
The latest local political scandal involving the Cafaro family and certain public officials has once again garnered yellow journalistic headlines in the local paper. What are these folks doing?
My position is clear. No matter how inflammatory the indictment or bill of particulars, these are allegations, not statements of fact. Just because somebody said it happened doesn't make it so. The Vindicator knows that. Buzz words like conspiracy and bribery and perjury make for great headlines and may even sell a paper or two. But at the end of the day, this is a criminal proceeding in which both sides of the issue will be heard by a jury. Until that time, all of the parties are presumed to innocent until proven guilty. That isn’t a platitude. It is the bulwark of our criminal justice system. The Vindicator should tone it down a bit, especially under these circumstances.
Nobody wants corrupt public officials. But there is something more going on here. This isn’t open the fee drawer in a judge’s desk or look the other way while the mobsters are blowing up another car or taking bribes to allow trafficking in drugs. This looks more like politics bleeding into the criminal justice system. “We don't want Cafaro controlling Mahoning County” is not a legal argument. It’s a political argument.
Criminalization of political behavior is a dangerous game. Remember Scooter Libby? The government went on a multi-year witch hunt to find out who leaked that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Turns out the special prosecutor knew the answer almost from the beginning. Instead of stopping the investigation, the special prosecutor wasted millions upon millions of the taxpayers’ money harassing Bush appointees for political purposes; convicting Scooter Libby for perjury in an irrelevant interview a year after the Special Prosecutor should have ceased the investigation. Is that kind of justice you want?
Or Blago up in Illinois. Now there was an open and shut case. Dude, he walked!!! So much for all of the hype! It was political behavior. It might be unseemly and dirty, but the Feds couldn’t get the jury to agree it was illegal.
I don’t know how this is going to turn out. Almost all of these folks had stellar reputations in the community prior to these alleged "crimes." It may be everything the prosecution says it is, or it may turn out to be a political vendetta. I have read a portion of the indictments and the pleadings. In my opinion, this is much ado about nothing. Lot's of smoke, but not much fire. I might be proven wrong; but what if I’m right?
If it turns out these folks are innocent, where do they go to get their reputations back?
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