Political Punch

The latest District Attorney there in Colorado has said to NOT Jump to Conclusions..from the interviews it seems the Ramsey Adults might have the NOT so honest Marriage that has BUSINESS as its Middle name..I get the "Big Fish" eats "Little Fish" as the matrimony Star Spangled Banner Song..with the Family being so into themselves it has the Kidnap/Ransom theory hanging in there as the eventual STUPID PLOT to envelope them..then the stories that follow are just Murder at its worst..the horizon seems full of Insurance Claims..Death benefits/Medical Malpractice or medical treatment..I think the Ramsey's would fall into the catagory of OPPORTUNISTIC..then there's SCAPEGOATS-of course this suspect seems of the HAMSTER Variety..but still calling himself NAMES..all the time heading straight for the PIMP and Murder Instiutution that somehow seems to SIGNAL/Honor among Thieves..if there is any OBVIOUS angle to the likes of Mr. Karr..its all in being so suicidal that Honor Among Thieves is just another DAY-in-the-LIFE for such a mentality..its your PREDATOR has a PREDATOR syndrome.

The rush to judgment by the police and the media too often convicts the wrong suspect. The stories from Barry Scheck's Innocence Project, which uses DNA evidence to question shaky convictions, are dramatic and telling. The careful examination of this evidence has led to the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted and the capture of the real criminals. The rush to justice not only jails the wrong person, it lets the real criminals walk the streets. By the way, several of the convictions that have been overturned involved confessions that later turned out to be coerced or the result of trickery. There is a risk when the police, in questioning suspects, are allowed to intimidate or lie.

Good comments but the media will never learn. Isn't it the same thing they did in the Michael Jackson case? Like or hate the guy the media and the DA presumed him VERY GUILTY before even the trial started. During the trial the media outright reported mostly the opposite of what was going on in court and promoted the prosecutions case only to be surprised by the not guilty verdict.....

This same media did the same thing in 1993, convicted MJ and ignored the truth even when GQ had evidence the boys father was out to blackmail MJ and wanted money.... 1993 case guy has gone round telling everyone he can meet that MJ never molested him, his friends gave sworn statements to the DA and the defense saying that (that's why the DA didn't call the 1993 boy to the stand) yet the media to this day has refused to acknowledge or correct the false information they reported.

The media is very quick to judge and convict innocent people but very slow to face the truth and report it as such. With all the information that had been available on the Ramsey case not a single person in the media stood aside and said wait this people could be innocent should be presumed to be....innocent.

Hopefully some in the media will now go revisit the 1993 Michael Jackson case and let the truth be told.... the guys friends and school mates are ready to talk and say what the guy told them he lied, that his parents made him lie... apparently he's ready to talk but is too afraid....

Its a sad fact but the MSM stopped 15 yrs ago looking for the truth and look what's happening, they didn't even have the nerve or the courage to question the Bush administration before the war....some willingingly helped the GOP sell thier half truths......

thank heavens for blogs... MSM should catch up and start looking for the truth and standing for the truth and always remembering everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Sure, there may be an aspect of a case that merits a few nationwide reports, but seriously, we have enough of our own crimes here; we don't need WN and Nightline to turn into a reading of the nation's police blotters.

You're spitting into the wind, my friend. Certain murders have captured the public imagination since the dawn of time; where do you think murder ballads come from?

Hey,Jake,

You left us hanging. You ended your lecture by telling us that "it's very important for all of us to remember lessons learned here for future reference."

All right. So what, exactly, are these lessons? Spell them out, tell us explicitly. Next time there's a sensational murder and a publicity hungry prosecutor or police chief wants to slip details of the case to the media, how should reporters react? Give us your recommendations.

And another thing: You should've been much tougher on the supermarket tabloids, especially The Globe, for all the bogus headline stories accusing Patsy Ramsey and other members of her family of involvement in JonBenet's murder. Name names, hold them to account.

Sincerely,

Mike Fitzgerald

The Media should be held responsible for this type of circus. The handyman in Salt Lake did not kidnap the girl as all the moranic talking experts shouted. The final blow would be evidence that clears Scott Peterson. This is the same media that jumps on President Bush for Civil Liberty Violations! Innocent until proven guilty is a joke at the cable news networks.

If Richard Jewell got six-figure settlements from a number of news organizations for being wrongly fingered as the '96 Olympics bomber, Nancy Grace of CNN alone had better prepare to cut John Ramsey an eight-figure check.

Let's not jump to conclusions, Jake. It is "nice" to have some closure (or as it seems to be) on this horrific case, but I still don't understand how the facts line up. Was she killed in her home? Was he invited into their house? How did he escape? How did the Ramseys know this man? Were there others involved? Why did it take so long for the cops to investigate this man?

And, in the age of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle, can the media afford to fact-check and still be first with breaking news? (You approached this subject in your "Down & Dirty" book with the favorable coverage of then-Governor Bush.)

I would hope that journalists would do the readers a favor and say, if necessary, "the facts are unknown at this time," or "no conclusions can be made at this time," instead of passing on rumors and speculation like that girl I know at the Quick-n-Save.

Peace blog.

What always bothers me about these stories is that, as tragic as they are, they really are just local crime stories...Sure, there may be an aspect of a case that merits a few nationwide reports, but seriously, we have enough of our own crimes here; we don't need WN and Nightline to turn into a reading of the nation's police blotters.

(and what's the deal w/dropping the word 'Tonight'?...seriously, does it really make that big a difference?)

I'm angry. I've worked with great cops and lousy cops. In the last 24 hours, it was finally revealed, the parents' DNA did NOT match that under the victim's fingernails.

HOLY GOOD NIGHT!! That takes 99% of suspicion away from them, IMHO!

Yet -- the geniuses on the Boulder PD (who, at first, screwed up the crime scene) tortured those poor parents until BPD was made to look like fools themselves, for failing to "solve" the case.

FYI: that poor child wasn't just strangled -- she was GARROTTED. Like in "The Godfather."

It would have been one thing, if the parents were dysfunctional, to murder like that.

But add to no major dysfunctions -- NO DNA! My God, what a screw-up!

This is what frightens me about GWB, whom I did not for, nor Gore or Kerry.

He is such a Class I bumbler and Class I concealer, GWB diasters like that of Ramsey case are almost inevitable.

At bottom: there's no hope for good journalism with companies run by Gannettoid types. Today, only at the big Gannettoid papers, are their good reporters.

The last, best hope are the blogs.

I hope I don't offend the scrawny, polo-buttoned-to the top, pants-hiked-up-to-the-armpits, icy stare, creepy calm, deluded-about-a-toddler crowd when I say Central Casting.

Neither the media nor the local authorities acquitted themselves well in the Ramsey case, and they need to review the lessons you cited. The media cannot be a participant or a tool in a criminal investigation or else they lose their impartiality; the authorities cannot use the media as their own public relations machine or else they face charges of opportunism and favoritism. I'd have thought that in any ongoing criminal investigation the authorities would not have given a play-by-play recount of their actions and opinions as was done in the Ramsey case, but in Boulder, I'd have been wrong.