This Retro Report/The New York Times piece covers the McMartin family trial after allegations of child sexual abuse inside their school
facilities back in 1984, an infamous media and judicial trial that lasted until 1990 when of the last verdict of innocent was given to Ray Buckey.
More than 30 years later, comes this report that makes us look back to a summary of events with archive footage from the period, interviews with lawyers
and prosecutors from the cage, a young writer interested in the case and was on the way to publish a work on the case, and the lessons media and
audiences learned since those dark days.
For those who know about the case or at least had the chance to see HBO's "Indictment: The McMartin Trial" starring James Woods and Shirley Knight, it's
a great insight in seeing the aftermath from the case, I mean that's what generates interest from watching this short piece since we have the chance to see
how ignorant society were in dealing with such strong themes hence the importance the whole trial against the family was a landmark in following such difficult
realities (the McMartins story was of a painful one since they innocent and had to endure losses and damages all around while many true cases were happening
everywhere and people were paying attention, discussing it or denoucing). Today is a shocking tragedy the alarming amount of cases of child abuse but it was
thanks of this infamous, unreal and biased news coverage that more and more denounces were made, the issue became something to be debated, lives were
saved, abusers were convicted and parents took a better care of their children and to whom they trust them. Not just those facts but also
how children should be handled in such affair since the absurd psychological reports were a matter of forcing kids to say things that never happened.
Too bad that a report like this one failed to point a finger to general media, mainstream media and show about how ethics and integrity can be easily turned away
in order to get ratings, showcase a media circus but not tell the truth. Back in those days they had fake news, it just wasn't call it the way, and without the
social medias of today with internet and others, the decision made by editors in forwarding a story was a hard choice and it was very easy to fail. And when mistakes are
made who says sorry to apologize for all the damage done? IT all turned into a wildfire after an opportunist hack of reporter made a story about it without
checking sources and facts, because he was all interested in getting an exclusive report that was followed by an immense band wagon and they were following his lead -
except for true investigative reporters that was looking carefully through the threads. That was my concern here because the prosecutor who created the case shows what
went wrong and admits it; the main distructive figure of the story besides the reporter, a children's therapist declined interview; and I know the media working people
featured in the short didn't work on the case but they at least should mention how journalism failed readers, viewers and the McMartin family for not doing their job
properly. With the notion of such lack of integrity is that we wonder about the future of news reports in this damaging age of fake news.
Besides this criticism it's a commendable and important piece that must be seen by those interested on journalism field. 9/10