--- description: The docuseries revisits a different legal saga in each episode, from 1984’s “subway vigilante” case to the downfall of Rod Blagojevich. title: Netflix's Trial by Media Is Gripping—But What's the Verdict? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9fba86f8a6c9249/698a0dbd01168235c897f589/TrialByMedia_Season1_Episode6_00_42_52_22.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Netflix's _Trial by Media_ Interrogates the Relationship Between Journalism and Justice. But What's the Verdict?  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic May 6, 2020 4:49 PM CUT  Rod Blagojevich Rod BlagojevichCourtesy of Netflix  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic May 6, 2020 4:49 PM CUT In 1990, the venerated _New Yorker_ writer Janet Malcolm published _The Journalist and the Murderer_, a chronicle of a convicted murderer’s lawsuit against the author he’d trusted to tell his story. Controversial for its era, the book frames journalism as a game of “seduction and betrayal,” in which the reporter inevitably turns on the subject. Over three subsequent decades that saw the rise of first [Court TV](https://time.com/4059067/oj-simpson-verdict/ "undefined") and hyperpartisan cable news, then digital and social media, however, it became a standard journalism-school text. A corrective to the assumption that reportage is an inherently righteous calling, it now reads as common sense. Yet Malcolm largely ignored the opposite scenario, in which a journalist, or the media at large, becomes the pawn of a subject—or lawyer—intent on winning in the so-called court of public opinion. Netflix’s _Trial by Media_—whose executive producers include [George Clooney](https://time.com/tag/george-clooney/ "undefined"), Court TV founder [Steven Brill](https://time.com/author/steven-brill/ "undefined") and Malcolm’s _New Yorker_ colleague [Jeffrey Toobin](https://time.com/4193893/review-the-people-v-o-j-simpson-american-crime/ "undefined")—seems more concerned about the latter form of manipulation. I say “seems” because at no point in the elegantly structured, deeply researched docuseries does the creators’ point of view come into focus. The six-part anthology revisits a different legal saga in each episode, from racially charged tragedies like 1984’s “[subway vigilante](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141513,00.html "undefined")” case to the darkly comic [2008 downfall of then Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich](http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1865876,00.html "undefined"). Skillful interviews draw out such memorable characters as Geoffrey Fieger, the showboating lawyer who helmed a [wrongful-death suit against _The Jenny Jones Show_](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,24450,00.html "undefined"). An empathetic episode on [Amadou Diallo](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,39427,00.html "undefined"), the unarmed 23-year-old African immigrant who was shot to death by the NYPD in 1999, centers on [his mother Kadijatou](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,38858,00.html "undefined"), whose rude awakening to racism in America launched a lifetime of activism. What’s missing is synthesis. Each episode tracks how attorneys, activists and other interested parties interact with the media. Sometimes, it’s illuminating; [_Celebrity Apprentice_ alum Blagojevich](https://entertainment.time.com/2010/01/04/blago-moves-to-the-private-sector-on-celebrity-apprentice/ "undefined") rides a tabloid roller coaster to a presidential commutation catalyzed by his wife’s appearances on Fox News. More often, causes and effects remain fuzzy. The series neither creates a timeline nor makes an overarching argument. We’re left wondering: When journalists are in thrall to murderers, what is to be done? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5832838/netflix-trial-by-media-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5832838/netflix-trial-by-media-review/"},"headline":"Netflix's Trial by Media Interrogates the Relationship Between Journalism and Justice. 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