I was watching a TV show not too long ago about things that happened in the 90’s. The teaser before the commercial indicated they were going to talk about the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta after the break. I turned to my wife and said, “What was that guy’s name? Oh yeah, Richard Jewell.”
My memory of that event left me with the impression that Richard Jewell was the bomber. Except he wasn’t.
The guy who made and planted the bomb was Eric Robert Rudolph. Richard Jewell was a security guard who found a suspicious green backpack under a bench and immediately alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Then, Richard Jewell and other security guards started clearing the area of people before the bomb exploded.
Richard Jewell was a hero. But I remembered him as the villain.
Why was that? Because the FBI started looking at Jewell as a suspect and the Justice Department leaked that information to the press. After all, he found the backpack so maybe he was involved. Maybe he planted the backpack so he could find it and be hailed as a hero. The worldwide media took the investigation as proof of his guilt and their headlines all pointed the finger at Richard Jewell.
After more than three months of non-stop media coverage of Richard Jewell, the U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a statement saying he was no longer considered a suspect. But, since there was no other suspect, a lot of people felt that he was involved but the FBI couldn’t prove it.
Two years later, Eric Robert Rudolph was named as a suspect and five years after that he was arrested. By that time, nobody was really paying attention anymore.
This is just one example of the many, many times that the media has rushed to judgement and accused an innocent man of being a very bad one.
Remember the four years of non-stop blaming President Trump of colluding with the Russians? Turns out that wasn’t true either. The person really colluding with the Russians was Hillary Clinton. But the media didn’t bother covering that story, so a lot of people still believe that President Trump conspired with Putin. I know people who still believe it to this day.
Here’s one more: How many of you remember back in 2006 when three white guys on the Duke University Lacrosse team raped Crystal Mangum? This was front page news for nearly a year and was a clear example of racism and sexual violence on college campuses.
Except it wasn’t.
More than a year later, the North Carolina Attorney General dropped all charges against the young men after it was found that the lead prosecutor had both fabricated and withheld evidence. That prosecutor, Mike Nifong, was later disbarred for his conduct. The three white men were innocent. But that’s not how many people remember the story.
All of those examples, and there are plenty more, are instances where “innocent until proven guilty” just didn’t happen. Richard Jewell, President Trump and the Duke Lacrosse team were all found guilty by the media and the court of public opinion. And they were all innocent. But that’s not what people remember.
Keep in mind, that was back when the media at least pretended to be unbiased.
So, when I hear stories of Matt Gaetz being accused of travelling with a 17-year-old girl, I’m not going to rush to judgement and I’m not going to be swayed by Big Media. I’m not saying he’s innocent. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. At this point, I have no way of knowing what the real story is. And neither does anyone else.
We shouldn’t rush to believe everything we’re told, especially when what we’re being told comes from a very biased media with a not-so-hidden agenda. If they can accidentally be so wrong so many times, imagine what damage they could do on purpose.
Like I said, I’m not claiming he’s innocent. But, 25 years from now, when people remember Matt Gaetz to have been a sex trafficker, wouldn’t it be better if he actually was one?
