Jumping to conclusions.

by sam on 03/11/2005

All too often, in the pursuit of a "story", or an "exclusive", the media, and by extension, the public, is all to willing to jump to a major conclusion before all (or any) of the facts have been evaluated by the authorities. This not only places unrealistic expectations on those authorities to solve cases before the 11:00 news airs, but results in a real danger of pinning the specific blame on the wrong parties.

I started thinking about this phenomenon (is that the right word?) when I heard today that they found the man who had killed Judge Lefkow’s mother and husband. For those who have been living under a rock, just about everyone (on the left, on the right, on the moon) thought it was affiliates of white separatist extemist Matthew Hale. This includes even other extremists who associate (or wish to associate) with Hale, who have been gloating over the intimidation of a federal judge. A judge who initially found in favor of Hale, and only ruled against him when ordered to by the Court of Appeals. Well, as it turns out, it was a totally different guy, who had totally different motives for his behavior, and who has since killed himself:

The man, Bart A. Ross, 57, had sued the federal government and a raft of others for $1 billion, saying they persecuted him with "Nazi-style" and terrorist tactics as he pursued a medical malpractice claim stemming from the severe disfigurement of his cancerous jaw. He left a suicide note in the van where he had been living confessing to the killings, and, in a letter to a local television station, said he had planned to assassinate the judge, Joan Humphrey Lefkow of Federal District Court, but "had no choice but to shoot" her loved ones when they discovered him hiding in the basement.

This got me thinking about another recent event, a little more local. A few months ago, in northern New Jersey, a family of Coptic (Egyptian) Christians were murdered in their home. Tensions went out of control for some time, as many people, including the authorities, thought it might be a hate crime perpetuated by Muslim Egyptians from the same community. Well, it turned out that it was a robbery gone bad. Committed by some white upstairs neighbors.

But that’s certainly not going to sell papers.

Thinking back further, I can remember in the days after the Oklahoma City bombing, it was assumed (again) to be Islamic terrorists. Until it turned out to be a bunch of home-grown white extremists.

And the Atlanta Olympics, where it was Richard Jewell trying to live out some hero fantasy, until it apparently wasn’t.

One can argue about Occam’s Razor (that the simplest explanation is usually correct), but when the simplest answer is fed by viewer prejudice, rather than any actual fact, I think we all lose something.

Don’t get me wrong – regarding the Lefkow case, I think men like Hale are despicable trash. But the only thing that the attention he’s gotten in the past week has done is given him a national platform to spread his hateful views. Not to mention fodder for a claim that the government and media are actually conspiring to get him. And that’s a real shame.

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