Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41925767
I have no idea what is alleged etc but really, it seems that Spacey has been summarily pronounced guilty.

[mikey4444]

ymb....I haven't said he is guilty, merely that evidence is building up and a Police investigation is on-going.....not sure what is wrong with that ?

[murraymints]

whether or not he is guilty is neither here nor there, in Tinsel Town profit is what matters, Spacey is considered to be a very bad business risk and judgements have been made and decisions taken on that basis...

[murraymints]

likewise with all the many many recent celebrity cases Clarion... heads have still rolled...

[mikey4444]

10C....many crimes of a personal nature come down to one persons word against anothers. It up to the Police investigate and, in the case of Britain, the CPS to prefer charges.

Just because these type of crimes are difficult to investigate, doesn't mean that people shouldn't report them....its what the law is all about.....its the delivery of justice.

[youngmafbog]

//.its the delivery of justice//

By that you mean the lynch mob of the Media who seem to be able to wreck peoples careers, lives and in the case of one poor labour chap loose his actual life.

That's justice is it?

[murraymints]

such is life in these media led days !

[youngmafbog]

It needs halting now. We are heading fast for the 15C.

[murraymints]

I agree..but a practical impossiblity .. internet has galloped away allowing Global intrusion and influence, will be thus for ever more I fear ...

[kvalidir]

No-one has found him guilty of anything, as everyone has repeatedly said, he's just a threat to the box office of the movie, so they've gone with another actor, that's not saying he's guilty, that's saying that the publicity surrounding him is deemed to be so negative that the work of hundreds of people and investors over the last 3 years or so would be put in jeopardy if he was to remain included in it, and that's not fair, so they have replaced him. It's simple. No-one attached to the film is necessarily assuming his guilt, it's a purely career led and financial decision.

[jim360]

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a legal phrase. Society is, and businesses are, free to disassociate from whomever it likes. And pragmatically it seems that they have little choice but to cut Spacey loose. Perhaps if he'd denied the charges altogether, rather than essentially owning up to them, then he might have stayed on. But he tried an unusual and underhand, and frankly disgusting, tactic to get loose ("sure, I may have abused kids, but I was drunk and also gay"), and frankly that sort of approach sealed his fate.

It may be difficult to prove the allegations in a court of law, so he may always remain legally innocent, but you don't have to wait for a guilty verdict to feel that keeping someone close is bad for your reputation and profits.

[mikey4444]

It seems to me that we have learned nothing from Savile at all. People complained but nothing was done, mainly because they were not believed.

Now, when people are coming out into the open and speaking up, its suddenly a "Witch Hunt"

[mikey4444]

Jim...I agree. Spacey couldn't have handled this any worse if he tried.

[youngmafbog]

No Mickey, I simply hate trial by Media.

You can dress it up as you like jim but effectively he has been found 'guilty' and punished.

BTW, I dont like the man at all and I agree with your comments on how he handled it BUT, he has not been found guilty in a fair way.

[naomi24]

He has been ‘tried’ and found guilty – if he hadn’t he wouldn’t have been deemed a liability - but I don’t agree that he’s handled it badly. I can’t think of another man who’s been accused in this current maelstrom who has said he will be examining his own behaviour. That sounds pretty honest to me.

[jim360]

It was using the allegation as an opportunity to come out as gay that has angered many -- especially as Spacey had been dancing around the issue for years before.

It just risks reinforcing some ideas people have of a link between homosexuality and paedophilia, a link that is completely bogus.

[ummmm]

Spacey hasn't denied it! He blamed alcohol and came out as gay...

Korey Fieldman has accused Charlie Sheen of raping Korey Haim years ago. Charlie Sheen has denied the accusation.

[naomi24]

Jim, considering the accusations against him, I think it can be taken as read that he's gay.

[Islay]

Ummm as has Korey's mother this morning - she has stated that it was not Sheen that raped her child.

[youngmafbog]

And that is exactly what is wrong with trial by Media.

It's no different to idiotic vigilante groups lynching pediatricians.