GrainneDhu
Verified Expert
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2010
- Messages
- 5,159
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- 47
We have not been told everything about the property. I will never understand why certain things have to be kept secret. Years ago we would have known more. Strange, we now have all this media, yet no investigative reporting.
When I was there I was told many of the neighbors refused to talk with reporters...darn shame. This is becoming an epidemic. People not willing to talk.
SBM
A lot of times, LE specifically asks that witnesses not talk to the media, so as not to help the perp (many perps watch media coverage obsessively). The last thing LE wants is for a potentially valuable witness to inadvertently impeach themselves via a media appearance that sounds different from what they said in an interview.
People can inadvertently open themselves up to being impeached with no dishonesty or intent to mislead. It can be as simple as saying that the car they saw was black in the LE interview and then saying it was "dark coloured" in the media interview. To the witness, the two terms may both be true: they thought it was a black car initially but who knows, maybe it was really midnight blue, so after some time for reflection, they say it was dark coloured.
An innocent change of detail, no big deal most of the time. But in court, an aggressive defence lawyer (and there should be no other kind) will pounce on the difference to show that the witness's memory is obviously not as clear as presented by the prosecutor.
There's also the whole "does anyone *really* want to be famous for something like this" question.
I know I wouldn't.
If you allow yourself to be interviewed, then it can become open season on you, your past, your relationship, your family, etc. At the very least, you open yourself up to the suspicion that you are inserting yourself into the investigation for no good reason (either you're the perp or you're suspected of getting sick jollies from the excitement).
Who needs it?
And if the reason you moved to a neighbourhood bordering on a rural area was because you wanted peace and privacy, you may well not want to encourage the media to hang around in your yard, block your street, run their loud generators day and night, throw their trash in your yard and worse.