Irresponsible media fueling Roethlisberger frenzy

  A very scary thing is happening in America today.
  The police report in the Ben Roethlisberger case was released yesterday amidst hundreds of other pages of documents related to the investigation of a Georgia co-ed's claim that the Steelers quarterback raped her.
  In most news locales, the story is being reported properly and in context. A police report is a series of allegations. Even though we're reading the report NOW, these are the allegations that Georgia police ALREADY investigated for five weeks. These are the allegations that a Georgia district attorney ALREADY decided he couldn't prove in a court of law.
  Yet in the realm of sports commentary, there are many alleged journalists presenting the details of the police report as if they are proven fact, commenting on them as if they are truth and encouraging and influencing others to view them in the same manner. It's unfair. It's wrong. And it's most certainly not the American way.
  We do not mean this in any way, shape or form to be a defense of Roethlisberger. Just based on the undisputed facts of the case, his conduct on the evening in question was reprehensible. If he's tried and convicted in the court of public opinion, that's the bed he made for himself. But the fact that the people leading the charge are members of the media is nauseating to me as a journalist and frightening to me as an American. Our justice system is based on trial by a jury of your peers. We're heading toward a system of trial by TMZ.
  Reporting based on fact is disappearing in this country. Reporting based on opinion is replacing it. If that doesn't scare you, it should. Someday, the name on that police report could be the name of someone you love.