Assignment 12: The Mcmartin Case

Assignment 12: The McMartin Case
The media greatly favored the prosecution while the trial began. The media did not question the prosecution and rarely, if at all, mentioned anything from the defense. David Shaw even wrote about the skewed coverage that occurred during the trial. In addition to Shaw’s writings, Wayne Satz, who was a reporting the case and children’s allegations in favor of the prosecution, presented the views of the children and parents’ claims in such a way that there was no challenge to what could have happened. He reported an unchallenged view. Later he entered a relationship with Kee McFarlane who was a social worker at the Children’s Institute International, who was one of the people that was interviewing the children on the case. Another example of the media influence was the fact that the editor of the Los Angeles Times coverage on this case got engaged to Lael Rubin, who was prosecuting the case.
This publicity could benefit Robert Philibosian, the district attorney, because of the nature of the media coverage. If the media is primarily in favor of the prosecution, this could influence the jury and the public to convict these
The techniques used were manipulative and suggestive. Many of the children were fed what to say or do by mere suggestion of the investigators. These suggestive techniques led the children, and even encouraged them, to be imaginative during the process. When the testimonies were gathered, they all seemed very condemning because of the techniques used, even if the information was not entirely truthful. These testimonies from the children fed the fire that was moral panic because it fueled the fire of the abuse accusations. If children were testifying this way and their stories painted them as victims to the McMartain’s it only furthered their