Freedom of the press sucks ass!

Freedom of the press. I think this amendment is taken far too literally, even more so than any other amendment. The news can say anything they want about anybody as long as they say that one magic word: "Allegedly". Or that other phrase: "According to so and so...", which basically means, "Hey, we're not saying it, we're just repeating what they said."
They shouldn't be allowed to give a person's name or show his picture unless he is actually found guilty. Once a person is publicly accused of something, it sticks, whether they are found guilty or not. If they are found not guilty, they just got away with it. This kind of reporting can and does ruin lives.
Accusations involving murder, rape, and anything to do with kids will make you a social pariah regardless of the outcome at trial. Especially the third one. The first two will usually split the vote on whether or not you did it. But kids? Unless they were in police custody at the time it happened, on video tape, holding that days newspaper, that son of a bitch did it!
But the biggies aside, my newspaper runs about five pages of mugshots, complete with name and where it happened, from time to time full of men who are ACCUSED of soliciting prostitutes.
Now imagine you're out late one night trying to find an Olive Garden to surprise your wife with a delicious salad. Finally out of sheer frustration you go against your male instincts and decide to ask for directions from that sweet looking girl standing on the corner that looks a little too old to be wearing a catholic school uniform, but hey, maybe she's just a little slow. You pull up next to her and yell out "Hey, do you know anywhere I can get a tossed salad?" She smiles, pulls out her badge, and now you're locked up, face in the newspaper, joke of the neighborhood, and probably getting a divorce because you were to cheap to spring for a navigation system. Does the word allegedly next to "soliciting prostitution" under your mugshot give you any comfort? I didn't think so.