Movie: "They Won't Forget"

Synopsis:

A small town causes commotion when a young student is found dead on Confederate Memorial Day. With an election in the works the running mate, District Attorney Griffen, desides that finding the murder will win him the election and allow him to be the U.S. Senate. So he decides to take on the case and blame the murder on the girl's teacher, Robert Hale, who is an outsider from the north. Even though Griffen only presented the joury with circumstantial evidence, Hale was still convicted.

If this movie sounds like it would be something you are interested in watching I would strongly encourage you to watch it and then come back to this analysis because the words to follow will give away key parts.

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-------STOP HERE IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE MOVIE AND COME BACK -------

If you left and watched the movie, Welcome Back!

So in my previous post I talk about "yellow journalism" but if you didn't read it I will link it here.

This movie is a perfect example of yellow journalsim. It shows you what yellow journlism is, how is effects people and how it can influence people.

Throughout the hole movie you are just given circumstancial evidence like Hale was leaving town and "blood" on his colar. But we are never given any actual evidence that proved he was guilty.

Griffen was more interested in his public agenda than actually putting away the man who murdered an innocent young lady. He knew that if he found the killer or at least someone who looked like the killer he would appear to be the hero to the town and thus result in him winning the election.

By joining up with a local journalist they were able to work together and practically tell the whole town which way they should vote before the trial began/ finnished.

This is further ephasized by one of the last lines of the movie. This line is spoken between the journalist and Griffen when the wife of Hale has just left the office of the new U.S. Senate who sent her a check just "because."

As soon as the women leaves they both turn to eachother and one says " do you think he actually did it?"

What do you mean "do you think he actually did it"??? You have just convinced the whole town and a jury that Hale has commetied murder and you are not certain that he actually commeted the crime?

Not only were theses two responsible for the possible wrongful imprisonment of professor Hale but they could also be blamed for his dealth as well. Because of theses two men Hale was sentence to life in prision but the towns people wanted him dead so on his way to prison the towns people hijacked the train that was carrying Hale and murder him.

So not only were theses two men responsible for Hale's conviction but also for his dealth. Technically they did not physically murder Hale, but they did have major influence on the individuals who did murdered him.

Do you really want your new U.S. Senate to be responsible for murder?

While this may be an extreme example. It goes to show you how dangerous yellow journalism can be. Without fact checking people can draw false assumptions that may end up getting someone killed.