30 for 30 Shorts: ‘Judging Jewell’

grantland ^ | 1-31-14 | Grantland Staff

[FlJoePa]

On Saturday, July 27, 1996, a terrorist’s bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park at the Atlanta Summer Games, killing two and injuring 111. The toll would have been far higher if not for security guard Richard Jewell, who discovered the bag holding the bomb and helped clear the area. Yet within hours, praise of his heroism turned to vicious accusations. Jewell would be hounded for months by investigations and the media. Eventually, the FBI would capture and convict Eric Robert Rudolph for the crime. Judging Jewell revisits the scene in Atlanta where Richard Jewell, a man simply doing his job, lost the one thing he valued most — his honor.

[FlJoePa]

Must watch the video at the link. It's a fully produced short and it's only 21 minutes long. I think it's very well done, and should be seen everyone.

The only respect I have left for espn is due to quality films like this. They rarely miss.

[expat1000]

Extremely well done.

If you fit the preconceived LEO/prosecution profile of the perp, you are screwed. They are not interested in looking further - just the opposite.

[Fido969]

Another Clinton Justice Department nightmare.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Richard Jewell, a man simply doing his job, lost the one thing he valued most — his honor.

He never lost his honor. He lost his reputation, that is based on what other people think of you but a person's honor is who they really are. Nothing ever made him any less of a hero.

[Kevmo]

Didn’t the FBI ultimately apologize for their actions on this mistake? That would be a restored honor, wouldn’t it?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I believe they did but as Ray Donovan asked "Which office do I go to get my reputation back?"

Once a reputation is smeared then the damage is done.

But Jewell's honor as I said is unstained. Honor is personal, reputation often lies in the hands of others.

[Kevmo]

Didn’t Jewell commit suicide eventually? I know it’s off topic.

[SeminoleCounty]

This is why you never believe the media or government spin whenever a crime story makes the news...too often they get it wrong

I see it again with this Amanda Knox story...and how people immediately rush to judgment and believe a corrupt Italian justice system over all the facts

It was a travesty what happened to Richard Jewel

[jiggyboy]

“Natural causes” (from being overweight IMO)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jewell

[SamAdams76]

Unfortunately mainstream media never mentioned much about Jewell again after he was cleared and there are still many uninformed people (most of them liberals) who insist to this day that Jewell was that "Southern white guy" who planted the bomb so that he could "find it" and be a hero.

Liberals detest Jewell because to them he is the prototypical conservative that they love to hate - some uneducated hick Southerner who swaggered around with a gun on his hip and probably watches NASCAR on weekends. Ironically it does not appear that Jewell was much of a conservative, but that does not fit the narrative. Like Sarah Palin and others, the mainstream media decided that they needed to hate him and make him into a monster, and so they did.