Judges are well known for admonishing lawyers not to try their cases in the press. And with good reason: the procedures worked out by courts and legislatures over the years are expressly designed to ensure fairness. The second installment, issued December 9, of the so-called McLaren Report on alleged state-sponsored Russian athlete doping is an excellent example of why these procedures—tedious and boring though they may seem to those who are not being accused of something—are important, notwithstanding the McLaren Report’s unopposed submission of 1,166 pieces of evidence.
Think, for example, of how the press would report a trial in a dictatorial country where 1,166 pieces of evidence were submitted for the prosecution and none for the defense. There is a phrase for that: “show trial.”
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