Read The court of public opinion if you want. This is a follow-up to that post.
I’ve been thinking lately about how often the media shamelessly convicts people in the court of public opinion because it’s good for news. That’s a lie. They do it because it’s good for business.
Chris Knudsen touched upon it himself just today (A note on society), and that post actually reminded me of some examples that show how people get convicted for crimes in the public’s eye but not in the courts or by actual juries.
Example One: Geek Squad/BestBuy sued for tech videoing girl in the shower
Thoughts: First off, Consumerist needs to get it’s headline straight. The tech allegedly did the videoing, not the company. I think we all know why the girl (who you often see smirking in the video) is suing a deep-pocketed company instead of some perv with a fake badge and a white shirt and black tie. Is he guilty? That’s exactly what I don’t want to decide in this post.
Court of public opinion?
Watch the news story, the journalist says “This news conference has just ended, so we haven’t had time to contact either BestBuy or the Geek Squad.” That’s because the evidence seems to say guilty and the attorney didn’t want BestBuy to comment before hand. She knew the media would jump all over it and wouldn’t miss the press conference.
More examples will come soon. p.s., I actually have a new website being developed right now that will address these very issues in the media and with PR people. Stay tuned.
4 comments ↓
I’m looking froward to the new blog
[...] You really think CBS/MSNBC would fire Don Imus solely over his racial comment when his show brings in $15 million a year? He got fired by the court of public opinion and the good old U.S. dollar. The guy obviously has a loyal following, so he’ll land on his feet. But, that was definitely an ignorant comment he made. [...]
Smirking? I didn’t see any smirking. I looked hard for it, too. While it’s true that the media presumes guilt, the simultaneous presence of a technician and his phone recording in the bathroom (which, according to other reports online, he attempted to recover from the women by offering a dscount on his service) does seem, shall we say, odd.
Yet blaming an entire company’s conduct on the actions of a single person is a bit of a fallacious statement.
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