PressEthic

Today the Times published the first article in a series titled "Broken Bench," detailing the findings of a year-long investigation that examined the "life and history of New York State's town and village courts." These findings, which will be detailed in the Times over the next several days, are disturbing at best, and, in many instances, absolutely sickening.

People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse.

The article shines a light on a very severe problem within the New York State court system, one that otherwise would most likely go completely unnoticed by Times' readers, who live in primarily urban enclaves where the justice system is more akin to Law and Order than an early-20th Century western.

Decade after decade and up to this day, people have often been denied fundamental legal rights. Defendants...have been subjected to racial and sexual bigotry so explicit it seems to come from some other place and time.

In the three weeks of grad school thus far we have been confronted with the extreme potential for bias in the media and the many, many ways in which journalists can make mistakes. This article reminds me of the opportunities that journalism affords us to do good. To act as a "government watchdog" without being overly partisan and ultimately to illuminate a problem that affects the disenfranchised and might otherwise be ignored.

While the article is extremely long, I would highly suggest reading it, both for its content and as a reminder of what we, as journalists, are capable of.