Law In Media

In case you don't read Drew's blawg normally, well you should. But here's something specifically that you should check out. I'm sure this is true of any technical profession that gets covered by the media, but I'm particularly aware of how poorly the media covers legal issues. Now, like Drew I don't feel like I know everything I would need to in order to make an informed decision about the sentence. My trouble with this situation is the widely held belief that disliking the outcome of a case means that the case was decided incorrectly. In a system of fixed (or largely fixed) rules or laws you're going to get cases that don't sit well with your gut, but if you just go with your gut you're not going to produce any kind of cognizable rules. Needless to say, not everyone's got the same gut instincts, so I think we're better off sticking with a neutral set of rules, even if we don't always like or understand some of the outcomes.