By Brian Moon
Village News

Too many reporters duck the big stories of the times and do disservice to the public they have a constitutional responsibility to represent.

That's the contention of La Jolla attorney David Casey, Jr., past president of the American Trial Lawyers Association and senior partner of the law firm of Casey, Gerry, Reed & Schenk, based in downtown San Diego.

Casey says the problem isn't so much that reporters are ethically challenged, as that they always look for controversy that will generate headlines and sell newspapers.

That was the message Casey delivered during a recent seminar titled "Do The Media and Movie Industry Treat Corporations Fairly?," sponsored by the Federalist Society at the University of San Diego (USD).

Casey and six other legal and entertainment experts were invited to share their experiences and opinions on the subject before an audience of interested observers.

Casey's peers on the panel included Michael Asimov, a professor of law and popular culture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); the Honorable Joseph P. Brannigan, a San Diego Superior Court Judge; entertainment and media attorney Guylyn Cummins, a partner the San Diego law firm of Sheppard Mullin; John DeBello, television and film producer, writer and director; Gail Heriot, attorney and USD professor of law; and Larry E. Ribstein, professor and legal scholar.

In his opening remarks, Casey said he is disappointed in the media for "not going into depth on important stories, and not challenging the statements of corporate executives, judges and trial attorneys alike."

"We all go to 'spin school,'" Casey said, so whenever a public issue arises, "it's reasonable to expect that corporations will vigorously defend themselves to avoid a loss of profits, and politicians and think tanks will do the same with carefully tested and framed speeches and news releases for publication. But the media shouldn't simply regurgitate all of this."

Nevertheless, most of America's prominent news organizations are now owned by corporations with holdings far outside the realm of communications. Is it so far-fetched to think that many editors might be coloring today's news to protect their corporation's other properties? panelists asked.

After the seminar, Casey talked about a case he fought on behalf of American prisoners of war (POWs) who were interned in Japanese prison camps during World War II. Casey sued two large Japanese corporations, Mitsubishi and Mitsui, for their use of American slave labor, and then after the war for not coming forward to admit, apologize or compensate American soldiers or their families for the transgressions.

Worse yet, Casey claims the U.S. State Department chose to withhold support for American POW families he represented for diplomatic reasons — namely a fear of possibly harming current trade relations with Japan.

But the most atrocious behavior of all was exhibited by many American news agencies, which Casey says "acquiesced to the State Department's wishes and relinquished the strong independent role given them by the constitution to play watchdog over government corruption."

About that same time, it became apparent that several large American corporations had collaborated with the Nazis to use slave labor in German World War II prison camps. These same American companies never came forward to admit their wrongdoing and America's largest corporate-owned news organizations still refused to cover the story.

Could this have been a collaboration of corrupt corporate interests?

"It may well have been so," Casey said. "That's why I think reporters always need to question those in power, ask the challenging questions and evaluate their sources.

"After all, our country wasn't formed by corporations."