The law vs. the media.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe

WHY DON'T those who work in the judicial system and the media shut up and just do their jobs? The two least popular groups in America, usually blamed for every problem in this country from bad schools to spousal abuse, now are squaring off against each other. Judges and attorneys are blaming the media for destroying a person's right to a fair trial by polluting the jury pool.

The argument goes something like this: The zealous media, from East Coast Establishment newspapers to supermarket tabloids to reality television programs, produce such a distorted picture of the accused before they come to trial that no impartial jury can be selected.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, who is presiding over the O.J. Simpson case, was so furious over media sensationalism in pre-trial reporting that he threatened to pull the plug on live television in his courtroom. Appalled observers included both lawyers and journalists, who logically pointed out that live TV coverage providing direct access to the courtroom was the best kind of coverage. Not allowing live coverage punished the public, not the media.

But the public, conditioned by Ito's constant harangue against what he called careless and reckless media coverage, immediately sided with the jurist. Speaking with the full force of a lynch mob, via polls, they cried: Enough is enough!

What many seem to forget is that the Supreme Court has repeatedly given the press broad rights to cover legal proceedings because the Founding Fathers knew full well the problems of letting the government and the law operate without public scrutiny. Too many remembered vividly what it was like to be accused, found guilty, and thrown into prison without any public participation in the process.

It is absurd to blame the media for tainting potential jurors. The jury system, under attack for centuries by men and women of all backgrounds and philosophies, may be many things, but it never has been pristine or unbiased. It always was tainted by environment and genetics.

Jurors come complete with prejudices and biases, secret angers and frustrations, and minds filled with potent images, some based on reality, others on myth. Potential jurors represent the spectrum of society. Some are deeply religious; others are atheists.

Most blame their problems on the schools, the media, or other people. Most complain they work for bosses they hate or are bitter because they were forced to retire early or can't find work at all...