Media Log

Fifteen years ago when I rode my bicycle to work I stopped every morning to buy the Wall Street Journal--seventy-five cents--from the machine. Later I would read it, mainly the opinion pages but occasionally the front page or the arts & entertainment, over lunch. I always watched for the byline of a certain writer whose prose I savored. My fantasy at the time was that if I won the lottery or found gold deposits in my back yard, I would send a blank check to the Wall Street Journal and ask them to fill in the appropriate amount and send me in return every word that Dorothy Rabinowitz had ever written.

Ms. Rabinowitz held the post of Television Critic but about that time she began following a more serious story, that of the Amiraults in Massachusetts, accused of unspeakable crimes which they did not commit and imprisoned for life, Violet Amirault dying penniless at the age of 74 after eight years in prison. Ms. Rabinowitz collected her thoughts on these and similar cases in a book published in 2003: No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusations, False Witness, and Other Terrors of Our Times, which I highly recommend, provided you can control your rage as you read it.

I've not seen much of Ms. Rabinowitz lately; perhaps she has semi-retired or taken up other projects. Or maybe she publishes only in the print editions and not online. But this morning she appeared again in the Opinion Journal, taking up the JonBenet Ramsey case. Don't miss it.