“Richard Jewell”, a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell, sheds light on something I’ve really come to detest when it comes to news and media, that being the willingness to put any story out there that will gain primetime exposure, even if it may be inaccurate or even completely false.
I know our current President is always talking about fake news and as much as I can’t believe I’m going to say this, on some level I agree with him. There is a lot of fake news that’s put out there for the world to see, which is precisely what happened to Richard Jewell back in 1996 when a bombing occurred in Centennial Park during the Olympics.
Richard Jewell may not have been the brightest person in the world, but he truly was a hero who saved many lives when he discovered a very large pipe bomb planted under a bench on the grounds of an extremely crowded Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics. Sadly, the FBI saw him as something different during their initial investigation and erroneously labeled him as their main suspect and a potential terrorist. When a lead reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kathy Scruggs (played by Olivia Wilde), catches wind of this from her FBI contact Tom Shaw (played by Jon Hamm), she convinces her editor to immediately run with the story, even when there was no official proof that Jewell was guilty of anything. Once the story gets printed, Jewel suddenly goes from being lauded to loathed. As he becomes public suspect number one, Jewell quickly enlists the help of a lawyer, Watson Bryant (played by Sam Rockwell), to clear his name, while his mother Bobi (played by Kathy Bates) loyally stands by his side knowing he’s innocent, even when the media continues to viciously defame her son. It doesn’t take long for Bryant to believe in Jewell’s innocence, as Jewell gained much of that in a previous job they worked together at. From the moment Bryant becomes Jewell’s lawyer, the film does a brilliant job depicting the pain and hardship Jewell had to go through to clear his name from the villain the news and media painted him as, and return him to what he should have been all along, a hero.
As I watched “Richard Jewell”, I totally felt myself becoming angry at the government and all those news and media outlets for slandering the name of such an innocent person. It’s sad to think about the number of people whose lives have actually been ruined because of erroneous stories getting printed that weren’t completely factual. It is estimated that up to 10,000 people are wrongfully convicted every single year and I wonder how much of that is due to all the slander that news and media outlets often put out there. This is specifically why I rarely watch or read the news because I don’t want it to bias me, like so many people were when the media blamed Jewell before even having a shard of evidence against him.
This movie led me to wonder how many others have gone through what Jewell did. How many lives have been wrecked by what the news and media have reported over the years? I even began to question if Jewell’s heart attack that killed him in the mid 2000’s was a direct result of all the pain and stress his heart went through during the years he was vilified.
The bottom line that the film “Richard Jewell” so clearly reminded me of is to never fully believe everything I see in the news. Rather, to accept that much of it is sensationalized and often falsely represented solely to gain readership or viewership, rather than “accurate-ship”.
Maybe we all just need to stop following the news and instead, begin to follow our hearts…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
I agree!, this occurs much too often.
However, that being stated, it can also occur within one’s family, one’s circle of friends, one’s church . . .
I rarely watch the new and shall stay free of watching the news on a regular basis.
Me Chris & you have a wonderful holiday!
Shalom
Agreed Alma! Thanks for commenting today and have a great holiday!!! ❤️