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| January 26, 1961 Barnstable Patriot |  |
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BY
HAROLD W. SULLIVAN
AJ. Boston College, LL.B. Yale School of Law, LL. M. Harvard Law
School, sometime member reportorial staff the San Franciso Chronicle,
the Boston American, sometime professor of International Law,
Portia Law School, former Assistant District Attorney, Suffolk
County, Boston, member of the bars of Massachu-
letts, New York and the Supreme Court of the
United States.
Lt. Col., J.A.G.C, U.S.A., Ret.
The Barnstable Patriot has acquired pre-publ ication
rights to "Trial By Newspaper" written by Harold W. Sulli-
van, Hyannis attorney, and print ed by The Patriot Press.
The book is in limited edition and may be ordered in advance
at $5 a copy at the Patriot Office , 24 Pleasant Street, Hy-
annis. I
The book which began with the Jan. 5 issue of The
Patriot is being publishe d in serial form fro m week to week.
The fou rth installment fo llows:
"PRETRIALS BY NEWSPAPER PUBLICATION"
No one attempts to impose a moral code or a political
theory from the heights of public opinion. One of the func-
tions of public opinion is to check the use of force in any
uprising. This permits men to make terms to live and
let live. By the same principle, men or women who are but
spectators of action, cannot successfully intervene in a con-
troversy on the merits of a criminal charge. They neces-
sarily judge externally, they act only upon a state of mind
influenced and controlled by some interest directly involved.
Every man, put to the test, should want to follow through
the specific issue.
There1 is a problem in public opinion only when some-
body objects; and when objection ceases, there is no longer
a problem. Thus, then, for the public, any rule is right
which is agreeable to all concerned and is satisfying. The
public interest in the problem might be limited to this. The
danger lies in giving wrong impressions and ill-advised
statements.
An evil that is carried from public opinion to a court
of law, is the unconscious prejudice from such impressions
and ill-advised statements. The public opinion that such
and such a person should not do this or that is immaterial
because public opinion may not know the person's motives
and needs, and is not concerned with them. The public
have an interest in the law and its enforcement and method
of procedure. It should have always, not in a particular
case but in all cases, a desire for an honest result.
Again, the pressure which public opinion is able to apply
in praise or blame through any form of expression, will
always yield results and there should ever be occasion to
overcome a misjudged or misplaced opinion following from
a false basis. We always want true public opinion about
things reenforced with solid upright news. The public
should never be the dispenser of law or morals but a reserve
force that may be mobilized on behalf of the method and
spirit of law and morals. The public should always be a
welcome supporter of the agents of the law. This is as it
should be, for law enforcement should have its reserve;
it is a reliance and an encouragement to those engaged in
the work, but there should never be need to draw upon it.
Even, in the ordinary crisis, which creates a problem of
public opinion, men hestitate to act on opinions gained from
newspaper publications. It is fust that which gives rise to
so many boards of inquiries. No one in any positio n of
public trust is deposed without an inquiry, whatever may
be the shade of public opinion. Alleged facts become con-
troversial and obscure, novelty and confusion prevail, and
the public in all its unfiness is not compelled to make an
important decision. No real public prob lems are- solved by
newspaper stories. Even genuine exposes must be followed
by investigations.
Society has not developed an education for the public.
It obtains only a smattering of a kind of knowledge which
a responsible man requires to make a decision or to act
upon.
The public schools may teach the child how to act as a
member of the public—but that is about all. School does
no more than give him a hasty, incomplete taste of what
he might have to know if he has a superficial interest. He
joins a bewildered public as a mass of those insufficiently
trained and perhaps gullible, for all he might read. The
result is that public opinion is not even the trained voice
of society, but the voice of the interested spectators of
action. It is easy therefore to conclude that the opinions of
the spectators are essentially different from those of the
participants.
To believe all that is printed, much of which is for pri-
vate purposes or a mere emanation of some common pur-
pose is dangerous. Truth can be obtained only by carefully
guarded , conscious statements made in all sancity and
candor.
Weighing statements of persons reported in the press,
requires a deliberate act of the mind, plus an ability to
observe and to speak accurately, to describe even common
events such as the incidents of a traffic accident. Ninety
per cent of the people do not exert themselves in ordinary
conversation to be accurate. Indeed, if they did, they would
sound affected and pedantic.
The press can be a very potent agency for good rather
than harm if it would not only refrain from emphasizing
and playing up such comedy as it may see in the cases
as heard in the courts, but would emphasize the horror and
the tragedy that are in such cases in abundance. Such a
treatment of that subject by the press would be conducive
to a soberness of thought on that subject by the press-
reading public, rather than stimulating undesirable attitudes
in the minds of the public.
Newspapers have so often been charged by the ordinary
.reader with sensationalizing crime and thereby hindering
criminal procedure in the courts. The charge is true—crime
news is sensationalized and made the basis of appeal to a
low grade of readers. But the important point is whether a
community in which newspapers never mention crime would
be more or less sensitive to abuse and injustice and more
or less alert to protect itself from antisocial members. Cer-
tainly, these societies where publicity is freest are most
free from the grosser abuses and are most sensitive to
human right.
But, where has sensationalization of news ever worked to
relieve bad situations?
While it is true the public must be constantly stirred by a
fuller realization of what is actually happening in the world
if conditions are ever to be improved, yet the treatment of
the Leopokl-Loeb case in Chicago illustrates the manner in
which crime news may be exploited by the press in the
United States.
This case dominated the newspapers for four months.
During the first fortnight, one Chicago daily gave to the case
228 columns of news pictures, comments, and conjecture.
Another Chicago paper , on Sunday, June 1, the day after
the murderers confessed, printed 21 columns about the
crime. Not only in Chicago but all over the country papers
carried the news in spread headlines.
The trial lasted thirty-three days, on every one of which
a full page with flaring headlines was regarded as its reason-
able space allowance. Did this nation-wide publicity aid
the cause of justice or complicate its work? Would it be
possible in Chicago to have obtained a fair and unbiased
jury after this exploitation? Such submission of the case
in detail to the public makes a jury trial a farce. By the
time of trial no one of ordinary intelligence in the com-
munity or in the country generally can go into the jury box
with an open mind.
The English weekly, The New Statesman, in comment
upon this phase of the case declared that it would be idle
to account for "the American Institution of Trial by News-
papers." It added that "no short description could make
real to English readers" the way in which the affair domin-
ated American newspapers.
The press mob of dingoes whipped public excitement into
such a frenzied fury in the Leopold-Loeb case, that Honour-
able John R. Caverly, who imposed lile sentences, was
hounded to his death in one year by the abusive and brutal
mail he received. This, despite the fact that the world wide
trend , and in these United States especially, is decidedly in
favor of abolition of capital punishment.
But the press dukites lashed the public into a hydro-
phobia foaming mob, and a courageous judge became the
victim of the journalistic dingoes.
Still the press prates and pules, piously, about its role of
public protector of the common weal.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Trial By Newspaper
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(Continued trom Page 4)
Thursday night ot the Cotult Ele-
mentary School under Coach Pea-
cock's direction with Roger Scudder
as supervisor of the urogram. Pea-
cock also manages tho now team In
tho Capo Cod llaskotball League,
which Is going great guns at tho
present time.
STOP AND SHOP HAS HOPES
Still to win a game tho Stop und
Shop group, under Prank Mello, is
working hard to got into the win
column. The Grocers moot a power-
ful Burmun outfit Saturday night at
9 p.m. Ed piwi's loam has a lot ot
latent power that is still unloushod.
Players like Carl Peters, Bob Kurla ,
Frank Constable and Jim llrlto havo
the basketball "know how " and
should have no troublo taking tho
younger oulllt . it looks as it Ned
Semprlnl will be out tor tho season.
Lloyd Montcalm and Doug Campbell
should help tho Stop and Shop team
but tho boys will mlsa Nod' s rugged
play.
GIRL S LEAGUE RESUMES
Tho head-liner in the Girls '
League Saturday afternoon at. 2:16
In tho Jr. High gym is tho game
between wo undel'caled teams, tho
yellow Queens and tho Green Pals.
Mrs. Joseph Maeombor 1H coaching
the Queens und the strategist for
the G reen Pals Is Mrs. John McGinn.
This should ho a keen battle all tho
way. K tho Queons can stop Cup-
tain Linda Taylor ot tho Greenlee
thoy might win. This sharp shooter
Is way abend in the Individual point
scoring In tho league with 35 points,
sho lutH unerring oyo und it will
take all tho good guarding of tho
Qreenies to stop her .
OTHER GIRLS GAMES
Tho Junior Raiderettes are on
lire to win their drst gome and if
tholr lender , Eleanor Perry is any
criterion , thoy should accomplish
that against tho White Winners ,
whom thoy meet ut 3 p.m.
In the other gaino scheduled for
the afternoon at 1:80 the Jlluo Hunts
and i the Pink Puis will oome to-
gether, Lust Saturday thy Pinkies
Just couldn 't buy a basket and wore
shut out by tho Yellow Queens, no
to 1. Led by Captain Judy Adams
the Pinkies vow to make tho battle
strong against the Blue boat.! who
are still lied for drst place with I!
victories and no defeats.
Recreation
News Letter
This attractive wall clock was
presented to Sturgis Library In
Darnstable Jan. in in memory <>r
Miss Elizabeth Nye , former libra-
rian who had served at Sturgis for
more than 50 years.
MEMORIAL CLOCK
(Continued from Page 1)
Talk Is slowly turning to poll,
tics. This is mi off-year as far as
elections nro concerned with tow
majo r contests. Political tolk is
mainly of tho proposed "Sports-
land Park" which the now owners
hope to erect on tho former Ameri-
can Legion properly. Many people
Were on hand to express tholr feel-
ings at tho hearing last Monday
night. Everyone Is wondering what
Mr. DugaSi tho now owner , will do
with the property If ho Is not
grante d mi amusement license. It
Is certain that he won 't let this
valuable propert y siniul Idle too
long.
Wo sure are lucky to havo all of
these vacant parking lots at our
beaches! Where olso would we
dump tho snow removed from Main
.Street? Tho lots nt Boa Stroot
Beach mid Kalmus Park are
clogged with mound upon mound
of tho wlilto stuff. A continuous
line of trucks WIIB running hack
and forth along Sea Strwl and
Ocean Street until tho snow re-
moval project was Anally com-
pleted. The question is, what will
we do If wo havo another storm
soon? Wo dour have any place to
put the snow!
TO WN TOP ICS