The ESPN “30 for 30″ short “Judging Jewell” is an absolute must-watch for anyone even remotely involved with media. If you do nothing else this week to further your career in sports media, sit down and spend 21 minutes with this devastating documentary.
You want to see the real-life consequences of simply failing to properly attribute facts and assertions? Watch the sad, infuriating story of Richard Jewell.
Jewell was a security guard at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Stationed near a light tower at Centennial Olympic Park during a late-night concert, he spotted a stray backpack, alerted law enforcement and helped evacuate the area. A bomb in the backpack exploded, killing two and injuring 111.
Jewell’s quick thinking may have saved more than 100 lives, according to his attorney, Lin Wood. He was hailed as a hero at first, but a few days after the explosion, suspicion fell on Jewell, who was quickly convicted in the court of public opinion, thanks in large part to the media’s portrayal of him as “fitting the profile” of a lone bomber and an overzealous security guard.
As Henry Schuster, a CNN producer at the time, says in “Judging Jewell,” once suspicion fell on Jewell, everything he did made him look guilty, starting with having to navigate a huge scrum of international media every time he left the apartment he shared with his mother.
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