Being evil: Exploitation for spite and profit

It's been about two years since the last post here, and after today's news that Google is going to force all profiles to be public, I'm not sure how I feel about keeping this blog. From a practical standpoint, I don't use it much. From a philosophical one, I find the bulldozing of anonymity and privacy repugnant, and have problems doing business with a once good company that now seems bent on violating their foundational principle and 'being evil'.

Speaking of evil, I'm dismayed by the Casey Anthony trial. Not the results, per se, as I've no opinion on those. I know next to nothing about the case, so any views on its merits would be pointless. What I do know is that the one time I got to hear anything about it aside from the name of the defendant was in an ER waiting room about a month ago when I was waiting for news of a visiting friend I'd had to drive there. What struck me was the pronouncements the news presenters and commentators were making about how guilty she was, and the fact that they were doing so based on her facial expressions. Once the orderly called me into the bowels of the ER to sit with my friend for the next few hours, my knowledge of the case was ended.

What never left me was the feeling of uneasy disgust over the ignorant, prejudicial claptrap being spewed by the talking heads yapping about the ratings-boosting spectacle of a mother accused of murdering her child. To reiterate, I have no opinion about whether or not she committed a crime. However, I'd like to have seen science, good police work and the rule of law give us a rigorous, boring trial and the best possible arguments from both sides take precedence. What I saw was some woman with two first names whom I'd thought a figment of Denny Crane's imagination convincing CNN news anchors (and likely the audience) of a person's guilt using belligerent observations with no more scientific merit than phrenology.

One of America's most important foundational principles was the insistence that the rule of law take precedence over the cult of personality and privilege. To accomplish this, open trials are a necessity, as is equal access to justice and redress. When the media exploit their power to sway public opinion about the guilt or innocence of a person whose trial hasn't even gone to the jury, they are being evil. It doesn't matter why they're doing it. It doesn't matter if they're trying to boost their profits or grieving for a little girl whose life has been taken. It's evil.

So I still have no opinion about the defendant's guilt or innocence. But if they indeed found reasonable doubt, I congratulate the jury for sticking with their conscience in the face of a public media storm - and the danger in which that places them - and declaring it. I wish them all the very best, because I think the media - having learned nothing from the horrendous shooting of Gabrielle Giffords - have whipped the public into a killing frenzy over any verdict but guilty.

The message from all this? Let's all hope that we're never placed on trial for a spectacular crime we didn't commit. For every person who is, let's pray that there are still twelve good people and true who are brave enough in the face of overwhelming media power to put their lives on the line to render the verdict their conscience dictates.