If you are reading this, Michael Vick has already accepted a deal to plead guilty and there is speculation that he will serve eight months to a year in prison.

First of all, it concerns me when a case like this dominates the headlines; it makes me wonder what important news we are actually missing. For instance, our national tabloid media covered the fund raising of the 2008 presidential candidates, highlighting that Obama pulled in 30 million dollars in one quarter, but there was no coverage informing the public from whence that money came and therefore exposing the public to whom Obama would be beholden if elected president. So every minute we log watching the fabulous life of Michael Vick (go up in flames?) something is being missed that REALLY matters! Second, it is clear now that the American media is motivated by avarice for high ratings rather than by the public service of keeping the people informed with news that matters; our nefarious media preys on a credulous public! The irresponsibility of our media insidiously weakens our judicial system, particularly the notion that American citizens are innocent until proven guilty! Does anyone remember Duke? Does anyone remember Kobe? Does anyone remember Ray Lewis? FOR GOD SAKE, does anyone remember Dan Rather? It does not matter whether Michael Vick has pleaded guilty or whether someone settles out of court, the media’s reckless coverage indoctrinates the public with regimented ideas that subvert due process and denies the accused of the possibility of an uncontaminated jury pool! For this reason many accused parties accept plea bargains and settlements regardless of actual innocence. We seriously need to have a public debate about producing legislation to restrict media coverage of legal cases; the very integrity of our legal system is at stake! While one may not view pre-trial media super coverage as jury tampering, one must at least admit that the jury pool is drastically reduced and having already heard arguments about the case, drastically polluted.


Lessons that we never learn: we now have a tabloid media - focusing on fantastic weather stories, missing person’s reports and celebrity gossip! The 90's brought about the advent of wireless and internet technologies and introduced fresh news mediums. These days news is everywhere or I should say headlines are everywhere: available on demand via the internet and wirelessly via cell phones and pda's. Cable television is running headlines polymorphously: scrolling across the top and bottom of the screen, popping up in various locations throughout the broadcast while at once an anchor is highlighting the day’s worst storms, or some house fire way out in Kalamazoo Michigan or some missing woman from California. Headline shows running 24 hours ad nauseam essentially revving up the competition between news agencies to push out the days most irrelevant stories, only half verified for accuracy!

And the hypocrisy of our media, particularly in this case, is appalling! I watched news icons prattling along about how despicable dog fighting is and how horrible a person must be to participate in anything so violent and morally contemptible. Yet they will likely grab a burger on the way home from the studio! We breed cattle for the express purpose of grinding them for consumption; we rear lamb for their coats! We pay a premium to watch two men (and sometimes women) beat each other mercilessly in a ring but decry the fighting of four legged beast that have clearly evolved to do just that!?! Here is the most important sentence of the article: the reckless media coverage of this trail framed dog fighting as a moral offense rather than a mere legal infraction. To be clear, I support the law comprehensively and as a citizen would expect Michael Vick (and anyone else, for that matter) to be sentenced accordingly. I actually do not care whether Michael Vick is innocent or guilty – I am concerned about the integrity of my judicial system! However, this is not about the sentencing of the guilty, although there are clear connections to that. This is about how the media frames a particular matter and the ramifications of that on the various governing bodies. For instance, because the media framed this case as a moral imperative rather than a mere legal infraction, the Falcons ownership, the NFL, and corporate sponsors were compelled to respond exceedingly swift and excessively harsh. And if Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting in any way as he has now admitted, it represented poor judgment not reprehensible character! A stretch? Millions in the orient consume dogs in the same manner that occidentals consume cattle. Likewise millions in the orient venerate cattle even more highly than we do dogs. So then, if dog fighting is reprehensible, despicable, and morally contemptible how aren’t we to regard our oriental counterparts?

Final note: remember the Ray Lewis trial? Ray Lewis was tried for murder during the 2000 Super Bowl in Atlanta, GA. The prosecutor knew full well that Ray Lewis was innocent of those charges however, partly because of the celebrity coverage and partly because he had reason to believe Ray Lewis witnessed the murder, the prosecutor pursued the charges notwithstanding. Ray's team, the owner of the team, and his family all remained so supportive of him until the media was forced to cover the story in his favor. Michael Vick has supporters; however, his supporters are in no way as insistent and pronounced as were those of Ray Lewis - particularly the Falcons ownership and the NFL! Of course, the unfortunate reality is, were the Falcons winning the show of support for Mike Vick would be overwhelming, the media coverage perhaps different, and the outcome more becoming of justice.

Pastor Cory Ruth