danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I read this evening that Richard Jewell is dead. Jewell was the fellow whom the media crucified following the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta summer games which killed a woman and injured scores more.

What really happened was that Jewell was working as a security officer at Centennial Olympic Park when he discovered a suspicious bag that turned out to contain three pipe bombs. He immediately alerted authorities and helped clear the area, undoubtedly saving many lives. He was initially hailed for his actions, but when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution leaked that Jewell was a “person of interest” (with a headline which read, “FBI Suspects ‘Hero’ Guard May Have Planted Bomb”), ABC, NBC and CNN went with the bogus story, and in the public consciousness Jewell became guilty of terrorism.

Eventually, with much less fanfare, it became clear that Jewell was completely innocent, and the murderer was, in fact, a homophobic, right-wing religious zealot named Eric Rudolph, who had perpetrated a series of similar bombings across the South. I guess the media wasn’t looking out for someone like that. I mean, it wasn’t like there had recently been any other bombings by right-wing extremists. Oh, wait.

With the national attention span being what it is, and the media’s tendency to bury its mistakes, Richard Jewell was never fully able to restore his reputation, and that is a terrible shame. I’m glad I never forgot, though.  Richard Jewell was a hero, even if he didn’t think so:

“I never sought to be a hero. I have always viewed myself as just one of the many trained professionals who simply did his or her job that tragic night. I wish I could have done more.”

Filed under: Current Events, Politics, Rantings on August 29th, 2007