Tony Gonzalez over at The Tennessean has an update on the recent ruling about whether some records in the Vanderbilt case would be made available to the media. The answer is a resounding yes/no.
In an 18-page order, Chancellor Russell Perkins ruled that some text messages, emails by witnesses and defendants, and other records given to police by the university were public documents and should be given to a media coalition that sued for access. But those records won’t immediately be provided to the media coalition. Perkins put a stay on his own order, pending an anticipated Metro appeal or other possible court action.
Our old friend, Saul Solomon makes an appearance, saying, "We’ve said all along that the criminal court is in the best position to make a decision on what should or should not be disclosed to the public before the jury gets to see it." I'm unsurprised to find that Solomon is again arguing that information should be kept from the public.
It's starting to become a habit with him.
Anyway, here's the thing. We shouldn't all get along. It's uncomfortable, but better for society if there's tension between the media and the government. They should find us annoying and obnoxious and in their business, because the media should annoy them and obnoxiously get in their business. We have a duty to tell the public things the government doesn't want the public to know.
It's also the media's job to see the larger picture. Metro has tried to keep us focused on individual problems — scaring people with the idea that the media wants to see the video of the rape in order to post salacious pictures and out the victim — or hand-waving about how they didn't need to tell us how bad things were for domestic violence victims, because they have this awesome plan for doing better.
But in both cases, we start to see a pattern where the public is denied access to knowledge about how bad women have it. And, in both cases, in spite of what Metro says, this "keep quiet about the women" policy ends up protecting misbehaving men. We can't see texts between players and coaches or other players because of the victim. We almost didn't get to see the domestic violence report that showed callous judges and disinterested police officers, because we're focused on doing better for the victims.
I'd like to believe that is just a coincidence, or an unintended side-effect, but it's awfully convenient for those misbehaving men that the public can't know what happened to these women.
