Supreme Court Case: Sheppard V. Maxwell 1966
Supreme Court Case Sheppard V. Maxwell is the first case in American history to question whether the American right to a fair trial should be interrupted by the American right to freely publish one’s thoughts and opinions. Sheppard’s conviction, brought on by the biased eye of the press, was exonerated. However, concluded from the lack of policy alterations post-trial, the Sheppard V. Maxwell case still informally decided media is no real threat in the court system. Some may say otherwise. Although media may not directly affect court rulings, the press can certainly affect the public’s opinion, which in turn can affect a court case.
Sheppard V. Maxwell Revisited—Do the Traditional Rules Work for Nontraditional Media?, an article written by G. A. Hengstler, visits the main question raised in Sheppard V. Maxwell. Hengstler does not disagree in his article that the press may not have been that threatening in decades prior when media was primitive, but he argues that media is a sure threat today. It shall be clarified that the media in the 1960’s cannot compare to today’s rapid technological advancements. The rise in technology has led to a new competitor in the news field that utterly baffles journalists—the internet. Mainstream journalists are aware of ethical codes, but can that be said for every at home blogger or amateur critic?
The marketplace demands that mainstream journalists do the moral thing, unless they would rather feel the viewers’ wrath in a sharp decrease of ratings. Amateur bloggers, on the other hand, do not have the fear of losing viewers. It’s the web, so what the heck right? This is a problem that needs addressing. Hengstler insists that “Technology has chan...
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... commit the crime and provides the prosecution’s side of the story.
Salamon, J. (2001, November 11). 'the wrong man': Dr. sam sheppard's defense rests. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/books/review/11SALAMOT.html
‘The Wrong Man’ is an article in the New York Times newspaper written by Julie Salamon about Dr. Sam Sheppard’s personal convictions after being exonerated. Salamon explains the deal with the books and movies that have been inspired by Sam Sheppard and the Sheppard V. Maxwell trials.
Innocence Project. (2003). Retrieved from www.innocenceproject.org
The Innocence Project is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to exonerate all the wrongfully convicted criminals. They have successfully proved the innocence of 400 some odd people, 18 of which were serving on death row. www.innocenceproject.org is their official website.
Authors Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the innocence project at a law school in New York City, which has assisted in the exoneration of an astonishing number of innocent individuals. As legal aid lawyers, they blithely engaged in conflicts that implicated
Clare Boothe Luce, an American journalist and politician, delivered a speech in 1960 to the Women’s National Press Club in front of the American press to criticize journalists for the misinformation they publish in order to challenge them to start publishing the truth rather than writing what the public wants to hear. Luce appeals to the audience of journalists using her role as a politician, comparison, and emphasis to persuade journalists to start writing the truth, no matter how dull, in order for American citizens to truly understand what is going on in today’s society. Throughout the speech, Luce speaks to the audience of journalists about how the information they release shouldn’t be falsified for a myriad of buyers or views. Although
If the judge finds that media coverage would interfere materially with the rights of a party to a fair trial, he/she shall deny permission for media coverage. COR 16.02(b).
Sam Sheppard was attacked by the media's unethical practices so much during his trial that journalism had set new boundaries to limit the power of the press following the final verdict. Because of the way that the media went about getting stories for their papers and the way stories were written, Sheppard was released from prison. Journalism then set up new boundaries to assure that every person accused of a crime got a fair and just trial. Even though he set precedent for new practices that the media still follows, it is a shame that it took something as horrific as his wife's murder to allow the media to see just how much power they had over justice.
Convicted for the murders of his wife and two kids, thirty-four years ago, Dr. MacDonald still endures the agony of being accused of killing his family. Even after twenty-four years of imprisonment and several unlawful court hearings, additional documentation continues to up hold Dr. MacDonald’s testimony.
In his editorial "Words Triumph Over Images," Curtis Wilkie blames today’s media for being “reckless” and “a mutant reality show”. He believes that television and radio are “unfiltered”, which causes the quality of journalism for newspapers to be unmatched. Yet, it is unfair to label all media that is not print as lesser because the quality of any media relies on the viewers and the individual journalists, and in drastic situations like a hurricane, reporters may have many road blocks. Any of these aspects can affect the quality of journalism, which invalidates Curtis Wilkie’s claim.
...plications, the public is able to share and obtain information before the morning newspaper is delivered. In addition, the media today continues to dramatize public events. Cases such as the Zimmerman Trial or foreign incidents in Ukraine remain headlines on news articles for months. Each source presents bias and influences its audience differently.
"The Innocence Projectan." The Innocence Project - About Us: FAQs:How Many People Have Been Exonerated through DNA Testing? Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
Thirty years ago, if I told you that the primary means of communicating and disseminating information would be a series of interconnected computer networks you would of thought I was watching Star Trek or reading a science fiction novel. In 2010, the future of mass media is upon us today; the Internet. The Internet is and will only grow in the future as the primary means of delivering news, information and entertainment to the vast majority of Americans. Mass media as we know it today will take new shape and form in the next few years with the convergence and migration of three legacy mediums (Television, Radio, Newspaper) into one that is based on the Internet and will replace these mediums forever changing the face of journalism, media and politics. In this paper I will attempt to explain the transition of print media to one of the internet, how the shift to an internet based media environment will impact journalism and mass media, and how this migration will benefit society and forever change the dynamic of news and politics.
An argument can be made that Journalism is one of the very few professions in the world of media that is handled with some sort of dignity and pride. After reading “The Elements of Journalism” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, I realized how important journalism is to each and every one of us. Whether you’re a writer or a reader, the back and forth exchange between provider and consumer is extremely important in pushing society forward. Journalism after all is designed to challenge society, promote new ideas and spark conversation between one another. Despite the positives of journalism, there are issues that exist within the profession that cannot be excused and cannot be ignored.
In order to understand new media, one must first have a solid background of the old media. The old media traces its origins back to the “elite or partisan press [that] dominated American journalism in the early days of the republic” (Davis 29). With the advent of the penny press around 1833, the press changed its basic purpose and function from obtaining voters for its affiliated political party to making profit (Davis 29). With more available papers, individual companies competed with each other with “muckraking journalism”—investigative journalism exposing corruption—and “yellow journalism”—sensationalist journalism that completely disregarded the facts (Davis 30). The press continued to evolve its journalistic approaches and next shifted to “lapdog journalism,” r...
"Journalism Ethics Online Journalism Ethics Gatekeeping." Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .
Robinson, S. (2007). "Someone's gotta be in control here": The institutionalization of online news and the creation of a shared journalistic authority. Journalism Practice, 1(3), 305-321
McLoed and Hawley (as cited in Wilson, 1995) elucidated appropriately, "a recurrent journalistic controversy has involved the question whether journalism is a true profession or merely a craft." Sparked primarily by Lippmann and Dewey, extending into the age of the penny press (mid 1980s) and later, the attempt to commercialise the news (late 1980s) to our present era, there has existed a contentious debate on journalism being distinguished as a profession (Wilson, 1995). Encapsulated in a democratic homeland since the advent of time, media systems are habitually acclaimed as the “fourth power,” with its journalists often hailed as the “watch-dogs” of such a society. Lending itself to act as ‘gatekeeper’ for the wider society and performing the traditional role of journalism, the media (overall) exist as powerful “instruments of knowledge” that perform the function of providing information to the masses in a public sphere, where issues may be discussed, justified and contested (Scannell, 1995, p. 17). Evidently, media workers play a pivotal role in our society; however, their status in the realm of professions is not definite.