Has the Media Reached a Verdict?

Ever since the Michael Jackson Child Molestation Trial was remanded to the jury, the media changed coverage from an assessment of the day’s court performances to its crystal-ball-gazing ritual of making predictions. The media is stunned by the verdict, with Fox News calling it “Shocking,” while CNN released a new CNN/Gallup poll which showed 48% of respondents disagreed, while 37% agreed with the verdict. The missing link between the verdict and the respondents (which was absent from the poll’s findings) is the role the media played in framing a guilty verdict and hanging it around MJ’s neck.

Most US legal “pawndits” staked their credibility on a guilty verdict, while the jury was in session. For a jury which was not sequestered, the post-verdict media reaction is only rational – shock and outrage. The media failed to address the 10 counts against MJ. They failed to see a wide net cast against an individual being pursued for over 12 years by an overzealous DA (wow am I beginning to sound like one of the media professionals). Well let’s scratch the word “overzealous” out, the man was simply doing his job – trying to convict an innocent man of pedophilia. Of all the many possibly outcomes in the case, they failed to present the other probability – that of MJ’s possible innocence. Is it because of the “yuk factor” Cynthia McFadden was talking about in the possible innocence of a pre-verdict pedophile?

One day after the verdict, the legal minds scratch their heads, surprised at their inability of their predictions to influence the jury pool and surmising the reasons behind the “NOT GUILTY” verdict. These pundits who have a cumulative legal experience of over 750 years all came out calling the case for the prosecution …and to further impugn the American legal system, I heard one of them say “the prosecution lost the case, the defense did not win it.”

I am not an MJ fan although I once was as a 7 year old kid growing up in faraway Cameroon. I am just an individual who seeks to believe in the standards set by the American legal system. I would like to hope and believe that the tenet “innocent until proven guilty” would hold true, even for celebrities. However, when guilty is the call from the start of a case, a miracle like the one Tom Mersereau Jr. accomplished will be studied as a case in law schools around the country for a long time.

Now, the question on every news anchor’s lips is “what next for MJ?” Why do they care? They had expected to cover the first day of his 20 year term in jail. Alas, they’re scurrying for the jurors and trying to predict MJ’s next move. The man has had his day in court, it is time to move on…