By John Dela Rosa

GUAM - The recent coverage by local Guam media of the overturned conviction in the case of Douglas Moylan versus Jerry Yingling leaves a lot to be desired. There is little that needs to be said in the way of explaining the case against Mr. Yingling as it has received extensive coverage by Guam's mainstay media organizations. In fact, it is hard to name many other cases that have received so much coverage, even in the wake of "General Moylan's" scorched earth prosecutorial rampage.

From the get-go, Guam's first elected Attorney General set out to check off a list of high profile targets to indict. Almost to a tee, one by one, these individuals were indicted. And almost to a tee, one by one, these very same individuals were either found innocent of the charges, the charges dismissed, the verdicts overturned or the case never made it to trial.

In spite of the obvious "indict first, investigate later" tactics of General Moylan, the Guam media played up the progress made by Moylan and his posse. Each announced grand jury, indictment and trial was covered extensively from the standpoint that the burden of proof lie with the accused...a strange twist of perspective from "the fourth estate" which hinges its entire credibility on the very same Constitution that protects the accused.

It is easy to forget the dangerous precedent set by Douglas Moylan in his reckless wielding of power. Yet for the sake of men like Jerry Yingling – and honestly any one of the citizens of Guam who may have pissed General Molyan off, it is a disservice to simply breathe a sigh of relief that his time in the AG's seat is over and that the office has returned from "judge, jury and executioner" to guardian of the law.

And for all the zeal that was demonstrated in covering the accusation, indictment, trial and verdict against men like Jerry Yingling, the overturned verdict was covered as if a sidebar to the charges levied against him five years earlier.

Jerry Yingling, and so many others who were victims of the Moylan gang of AGs, is a long time resident of Guam. For Mr. Yingling, Guam was home. He raised his family here, invested himself in his business and answered his call to public service. And when the justice system had run its full course, he was found innocent of the charges against him.

But where is the news in that? Especially when the culture of modern media is governed by the old saying, "Bad News Sells." For all Jerry Yingling, his wife and family endured, for all that our community was put through during the "Moylan years," the only effort made by most local media to right the wrong to this man was a one-day story that simply mentioned the court decision.

According to the Justice System, Jerry Yingling is innocent. But if you followed the news that day, it certainly didn't warrant the same top-story coverage that his highly sensationalized indictment and trial did.

But for the media, it is on to the next story... and probably a bad one too... because, after all, bad news sells.

Yet, the media should not be let off the hook so easily. Bad news sells because that is what is being sold.

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Jesse F. Pangelinan  - Guam Media   |2009-12-28 01:13:17 You definitely put it to the point about the media coverages. No good news about anything including and especially any one person in general is good news, after that, anything good about anyone person being attacked previously is not good news. Mr. Dela Rosa, do you not think that law should be enacted to protect anyone from the unjust treatment that may be possibly be caused by political or any one's personal interest in power? For years, Guam's media have been (PDN) very unfair, as far back as I can remember during the middle of the 80"s. PDN would print anything about a case on anyone and make a very big thing out of it even during the case throughout the entire time, but, when the individual they have been writing about prevails his/her case, very little or non would be published. I strongly believe that for the interest of the people of this beautiful island of guam, a law should be passed by our bright and intellectual Senators that should anyone be accused of any kind of offense and are found by our Judicial System to be innocent, then our government should be liable for some kind of retribution. This would probably prevent prosecutors from being too hasty in filing cases for easy indictments and prevent them from easy political pressures, especially with the help of bias media. Reply | Quote 0   0

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