Miscarriages of Justice and Media BiasMaimon Schwarzschild

Are abuses of prosecution, and miscarriages of justice, more likely when most of the news media are intensely partisan (on one side)?  Recently we have had the Duke "rape" case</a>; the Enron prosecution, and the vindictive sentences handed down therein; the highly selective Libby prosecution, and the vindictive sentence handed down therein.  Also the Conrad Black prosecution.  All highly amenable to the media/Democratic "narrative".  On the other hand, we have had Sandy Berger let off essentially scot free, with minimal media coverage; and now the woman who shot her husband and evidently got away with murder.

Prosecutors – and judges in criminal cases – have enormous power.  Complacency and self-righteousness are probably occupational hazards in both job categories.  A free and reasonably impartial press is one of the few checks on prosecutors and the criminal courts.  (Juries, of course, are another.  But they are fallible; and also something of a disappearing species, given the power of prosecutors to extort plea bargains in many if not most cases.)

With media that are dramatically not impartial, it may be only human for prosecutors and judges to assume – if only subliminally – that if they cater to the obvious and vehement prejudices of the media, they are unlikely to get in trouble.

Not exactly a recipe for impartial justice.