Media determining seriousness of crime

BillieTheBot

A man smothers two little girls to death, and he is branded as one of the most evil men who ever did live. The media have wall-to-wall coverage of his trial, of his past, of why he is An Evil Bastard™.

A man rapes 12 women, including a ten-year-old, putting them through hell. he even rings one of their mothers up to gloat about what he has done. The media barely notice the fact that his trial has started, there are no reporters by the prison gates, there are no reporters in the area where he struck, there are few reporters in court.

Shurely shome mishtake?

Former Member

Surely that's only the media's interpretation of each crime and the final, most important verdict lies with the Judicary who shouldn't be affected by the media like that anyway. So regardless of media coverage, the criminal will get what they deserve in their sentence.

Former Member

Sad but true. A white, popular schoolgirl from the Home Counties who is murdered attracts media attention like nothing else. And if it happens to be two girls you know Christmas has arrived early at Fleet Street.

All the rest of the news can be safely put under the 'news in brief' section. Unless of course it relates to asylum seekers.

Former Member

Sadly not always the case Tim. The original sentencing might not be influenced by media attention, but subsequent appeals, paroles or increasing/shortening of sentences are.

Maxine Carr should be released under the tagging scheme. The only reason she hasn't is because the tabloid press found out, filled their front pages with "Evil Carr wants to be released- mustn't be allowed" and our spineless Home Secretary bowed to the pressure and changed the rules to stop her from being released early.

It can work the other way too. Look at Tony Martin, an unrepentant cold-blooded murderer who managed to have his murder conviction changed to manslaughter after a massive campaign by the ultra right wing press about the rights of white men to shoot pikos for the grand crime of breaking and entering.

Etc etc ad nauseam.

Former Member

Originally posted by Tim the Enchanter
the Judicary who shouldn't be affected by the media like that anyway. So regardless of media coverage, the criminal will get what they deserve in their sentence.

The judiciary arent affected by media coverage, but juries are and politicians are.

There are certain criminals who would never be released because of the media furore, and its a very brave Home Scretary (to use a Sir-Humphreyism) who would stand up to such pressure. Look at how the killers of James Bulger were treated by Michael Howard, look how asylum seekers are trated by Straw and Blunkett. Look how Maxine Carr has been shafted. Look how Tony Martin got away with murder- literally.

Former Member

Tony Martin is a hero!
When I told about his story in my native country nobody wanted to believe me.
A farmer shot burglars who burst into his house and was jailed for MURDER? Impossible! In our country, yes, we still ruled by commies, no matter how they name themselves. But not in England! You are fooling us.
Isn’t England the most individualistic country in the world? Aren’t property rights sacred there? Isn’t Englishman’s home his fortress? We read a lot of English books and we know that they all have guns, can carry them freely and defend themselves and the police only can’t carry guns. Wait, you are talking they are disarmed? Voluntary?! We were disarmed too, twice, first by Tsar and then by commies but we weren’t sheep, there were wars and rebellions and millions of us were starved to death and millions us were killed and millions of us were sent to Siberia. Were Brits sent to Siberia? No. So they’d never give up their right on self-defence to government, you fucking liar.
Hell, they have all their rights and they fuck government!
I say no, it was thousand years ago, now they have no rights, they have government’s permissions to do this or that, exactly like we, modern England is a typical socialist country and a police state.
They say no no! they are capitalist country, they invented capitalism didn’t they? How can people voluntary give up capitalism for such crap like ours?
What can I do but laughing?

Former Member

I truly hope you were taking the piss...