Media influence on trials

@Oisin Said

they were quite instrumental in the farce that was the stephen lawrence trial if i remember correctly.

@Sparklegirl Said

what do you remember about it? so long ago my brain cell has packed up

@Oisin Said

not very much i'm afraid, i was out of the country most of the time it was happening

i just know that the media were getting a lot of stick because they showed photos of the suspects and named them which meant that the defence could claim that it would be impossible to find an unbiased jury. i think that's what happened...or that could have been a film i've watched recently. i am very tired. sorry

@Sparklegirl Said

Yeah Im sure somebody told me about that last night. its ok, im tired too but scary movie 3 is keeping me awake i have to watch it to the end since i started it

@Oisin Said

mmmmm, OCD-tastic

i gave up on scay movie after [art 2 i think.

i also gave up on scary movie after part 2 as well.

@Sparklegirl Said

Yes yes I know my OCD is a pain in the backside

At least it keeps me determined, so I will work out the Stephen Lawrence enquiry

@Oisin Said

i think most people are a little bit OCD about something.

when you figure out the stephen lawrence enquiry though, let me know what happened would ya ?

@Sparklegirl Said

Im OCD abouta lot though but yeah, hopefully some others will give us a shove in the right direction with what happened now, its bugging me! Keep an eye on this thread

@Oisin Said

last time it came up, Treebs seemed to know a fair bit about it, so you may want to consider asking her ?

@Sparklegirl Said

To what extent do we agree that the media has an active influence on high profile criminal trials? This is something that I have been talking about recently (specifically the Jamie Bulger murder trial where Jack Straw interviened when he was the Home Secretary) So what does everybody else think about it- is the media really a strong influence?

@chaski Said

I don't know anything about "your" Jamie Bulger trial, but in the USA this last summer we had the Casey Anthony, trial.

Our media (especially CNN) covered the trial Ad nauseam.

Ultimately the media coverage had no effect on the trial. It did, however, lower the IQ level of everyone who watched the coverage...

Not long after the trial the USA lost its AAA international credit rating. I am not sure that there is a true link, but every time I watch CNN if feel dumber and less apt to do anything productive.

@rosexthorn Said

Put it this way.

If I was on trial for anything felonious and the media was on my side I'd take it as a clear win for me.

Side Note: I think everyone has some type of OCD in their personality. As long as it does no harm to anyone or ourselves than have at it.