Now is a good time to Remember Richard Jewell...

[ScreamingMeemie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/30jewell.html?_r=1&hp

snip-

But three days later, he found himself identified in an article in The Atlanta Journal as the focus of police attention, leading to several searches of his apartment and surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and by reporters who set upon him, he would later say, “like piranha on a bleeding cow.”

-snip

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As I sit here, reading posts about an unknown man who, for all we know, may just be taking his shirt off in the warm NYC weather, and his motivations for perhaps just walking down a street, my thoughts turn to Atlanta, 1996.

Let's not be the media on this. There are far too many variables that point toward and away from this man having anything to do with what happened this weekend.

To blare a headline that calls him "teabagger bomber", or deconstructs his movements (which, to be honest, look like anyone on the streets of NYC) could be to look like an ass in a few days.

Why can't we, as a society, wait and see anymore?

It is this kind of thing that really makes me realize that we don't really learn anything from media driven mistakes of the past.

The investigator this morning, cautioning CNN to not do the investigating for them, was very telling to me.

[Ian David]

1. My money is on Naked Cowboy.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Oh...my eyes...

[bluestateguy]

2. Indeed

And the Duke lacrosse players.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. I admit that I learned the lesson there.

[EFerrari]

3. Being careful is never a bad idea.

:thumbsup:

[AnArmyVeteran]

4. Jewell was victimized and I always wondered if the stress led to his early death three years ago...

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. I followed the story closely because the Atlanta Olympics coincided

with MrG and my honeymoon. I know, really super romantic, watching opening ceremonies on our wedding night. :)

Richard Jewell's story rips me to shreds. I have always thought that it definitely led to his death. I cannot imagine to have an entire country against me when I hadn't done anything wrong.

[Aristus]

9. Possibly. But it wouldn't be unfair to suggest that his atrocious personal health led to

his early death.

I agree he was victimized, though.

[AnArmyVeteran]

11. When someone is victimized it leads to bad habits and bad health...

That poor guy was essentially killed by incompetent media and a mob mentality. Something like that could destroy even the strongest person. Once a person's spirit is crushed it can lead to all kinds of bad consequences.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Well put

The mass media is not a court of law, but it thinks that it is one.

[troubledamerican]

10. Richard Jewell, Wen Ho Lee, Steven Hatfill, Bruce Ivins.

I see a trend: We don't learn.