Published: October 24, 2009 08:35 pm      

Reflections from the headlines

When I moved back to Corsicana, I figured my dealings with the “big boys” in big media were over. I worked at a major metro daily once, and it was swell, but I was glad to get out, away from the office politics, the pressure, and the big-city traffic.

But here I am, being attacked by the fellers at the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and any number of Web sites.

The reason is the Willingham story, an on-going saga that lives on and on, like Elvis on crack.

Honestly, I don’t feel one way or another about Todd Willingham’s guilt or innocence. I wasn’t living here at the time of the fire, or the trial. I never spoke to him, and only learned his name this year. I have spoken to the local investigators and a few witnesses, but I haven’t attempted to retry him, nor shall I.

You wouldn’t believe how weird this whole thing has gotten, though. If I write an article, I can expect a dozen or more e-mails and phone calls from around the country telling me that I’m either an ignorant country hick, or a hero. If I don’t write an article, I’m still going to get two or three a week.

I can’t imagine what the people actually involved are enduring, but they have my sympathy.

However, questions have been asked about our coverage, so here are some answers:

No, the paper and I don’t have a bias, we have a limited coverage. We write about Navarro County. The people we cover may have a bias, but it’s a legitimate one — and it’s just as legitimate as the one held by folks in New York, Chicago, Austin and Dallas. I suspect the reason people are calling us biased is because we’re not reporting their preferred bias.

I haven’t spoken to the arson expert Craig Beyler because he doesn’t return my phone calls. Same for Gov. Rick Perry, and Willingham’s family, and a dozen other people. The guy from The New Yorker quoted several people I didn’t because people evidently return his phone calls. Go figure.

Why haven’t we spent more time on such a big story? Because people in Navarro County have lives, and we go out and write about the stuff that affects them, such as what’s going on at city hall, and the local schools. This would not be a good local newspaper if all we wrote about was Todd Willingham. Plus, I’d want to jump off a cliff.

It’s surreal to me that so many people have gotten on this bandwagon without anything more substantial than someone’s opinion one way or another. They haven’t even tried to give the investigators the same benefit of the doubt that they gave Willingham and and his supporters.

After reading the third or fourth of Willingham’s conflicting stories, I was starting to go “Whoa, who is he kidding?” But I’m a skeptic, and the rest of the media, including all those self-important, head-swollen, horse-hineys at larger papers and magazines who have forgotten what objectivity means, should be skeptical, too.

Willingham was found guilty before the “modern” standards for fire investigating were codified, and maybe — maybe — the trial would have been affected if the house had burned a year or so later. But proving that 18 years later, and five years after the only person who can tell the truth is dead seems like a losing proposition, no matter how many cheerleaders and Monday morning quarterbacks are hollering about it.

Willingham lived 12 years after he was sentenced, and 12 years after the standards changed, and still didn’t win his appeals.

Just for funzies, let’s try this explanation on for size: Maybe this isn’t about Todd Willingham at all, but is a nicely packaged political campaign to get rid of the death penalty. If the goal is to have a fair and scientifically based investigation into deadly fire cases, why is there so much heavy-handed pressure to come to a conclusion before it’s finished?

Perhaps one day we’ll write an article saying that Todd Willingham was wrongly executed. But I’d like to wait until it’s an actual fact, and not just what some people feel, you know, deep down, in a special kind of way, where it really matters to them and their pet psychics.

Ideally, more credit would be given to science, logic and the justice system than to emotional hand-wringing, politics and accusations.

But what do I know? I’m just an ignorant country hick.

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Janet Jacobs is a Daily Sun staff writer. Her column appears on Sundays. She may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com