I thought that in America that one was innocent until proven guilty in a court of law judged by one’s peers. 

All throughout my life, I have been told that this is the way that the legal system in the United States operates. However, one group of people does not seem to go by this standard, and they are the media. 

Beginning with the O.J. Simpson case from 1994-1996, the media has gone on and on with their interpretations of the law, and making many people believe that one is guilty before they are even tried in any court of law. 

This just should not be happening.  Just over the holiday season, the Charlotte media finally got the blue chip news story that seemed to only be accustomed to big cities such as Los Angeles and New York, a superstar athlete getting in trouble with the law. 

As many of the world knows now, former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth is charged with many felonious counts, with the main one being the first degree murder charge against his former girlfriend Cherica Adams.  

The media first got a glimpse of this news story a few weeks before Thanksgiving when the Charlotte media reported that Cherica Adams had been critically shot on a Charlotte road, and that the police were looking for her boyfriend Rae Carruth for questioning. 

Quickly as the days started to unfold, the media informed the entire public that Carruth was not being cooperative with the investigation, and the media began to hint that he was the main and only suspect in the crime. 

As quickly as those words uttered out of the news anchors mouth, it seemed that the telephone lines lit up around the Charlotte sports talk radio stations calling for their star’s head, while major networks such as ESPN and Fox were reporting that Carruth was under investigation for attempted murder. 

All this man refused to do is answer questions from the police, a right that he has under the United States Constitution. Nothing at that time had linked Carruth to the scene except for media reports every 10 minutes breaking in with the latest news. 

As the investigation began to mount, the media began to make its case around the wide receiver. The media began to offer up possible motives, and actual reenactments of the crime the way they believed it could have happened. They even went as far as reminding the viewers of the possible jail time that he would receive if found guilty. 

What right does the media have to do this? 

What they are doing is ruining any chance of this man having a fair trial anywhere in the U.S., for the simple reason that the media has already convinced the vast majority of the public that he was guilty. 

And is that fair? 

There is a chance that Carruth had no involvement in this crime, but is it too late for him to mount an attack. 

From early November, the media went on and on with the question of why would he do this to his new baby son? A son that a paternity test finally proved was his, but not until January when the court conducted the test. No one knew for a fact that it was his in November, but the media made the public believe that it was. 

The media should not have this kind of control over the American public. 

The media’s role in society should be to inform the public on the news going on in the town, city or world. Not go on with what they believe happened in a crime. They are too powerful to do this, because too many people believe them to be the gospel truth. 

It is not fair that this man has to go into a courtroom, where he has to take on the burden of proof, but thanks to the media that is just what he is going to have to do.