In which the pond wonders if the Australian system of justice will receive a fair trial and fair play at the hands of the Murdochian reptiles ...

(Note: any comments in relation to Cardinal Pell's innocence or guilt will be immediately deleted; speculation as to whether he might receive a fair trial and fair play is already in the public domain thanks to the reptile Murdochians). 

For many years, George Pell was given free space in the Sunday Terror to promote himself, the Catholic church and assorted religious beliefs ...

For years the pond faithfully transcribed them, and occasionally mocked them. Oh okay, mocked them up hill and down dale, and with bonus frocks too ...

And yet the pond believes it could deliver a fair verdict if a member of the jury in relation to Pell's forthcoming trial. Matters of guilt and innocence are serious, not frivolous matters, and most people the pond meets understands the importance of a fair go, fair dealing, truth and justice, and the relation of evidence presented in court to the charges made, and whether they might be proven ...

In the Devine's world, this is simply impossible, and the pond would be ruled out, though on the evidence, the Terror and other Murdochian rags and their scribblers are clearly incapable of forming a fair view of matters relating to Pell, with pitiful tales of woe that suggest that, if serving on a jury, they would be remarkably biased ...

Strange that they should make this so obvious, given that matters of guilt or innocence are now matters for the court (and not the pond's comments section) ...

So what purpose or usefulness does the Devine's piece this day serve?

Well there's a pious image to get things going, but what's this in another corner of the rag?

But why should the Sydney archdiocese pay? Pell became a kind of de facto CFO in Rome - if anyone was going to stump up, it should be the Vatican, but as usual, the church is always canny with its cash, and naturally seeks to offload its risks on the true believers ...

Setting this aside, it's time to head off with the Devine, on what will turn into an epic trek ...

Of course it doesn't occur to the Devine that writing in defence of Pell is just another form of pre-judgement, and one perforce which must ignore any evidence which might be led at trial.

The thing to do here is to muddy the waters and drum up support and turn the court case into even more of a circus than the one it will surely become ...

As usual with Devine, in amongst the hysteria, there's one line designed to provide an out: The Victorian legal process must take its course, and the allegations respected.

Take its course? Respected?

She's spent the entire piece suggesting the course is wrong, and should be wildly disrespected ...instantly followed by talk of the martyrdom of Pell and the founders of the church, with bonus graphic crucifixion and beheading ...

It's why the Murdochians do so much damage to legal and political and other institutions as they dish their dirt ...

The Devine was outraged by Zwartz and FitzSimons, but she is no better, and her trawling through all kinds of irrelevant matters shows exactly the kind of respect she will offer the legal process.

Which brings the pond to the Bolter doing exactly the same thing ...

Now anybody who went to the Bolter's blog would find this as the summary of the Bolter's column...

But this entirely misses the flavour of the full column, which notably comes from the many illustrations featuring Pell and makes the Bolter's piece seem like a column better suited to The Catholic Weekly (and no, the pond won't be matching it with images of Pell in frocks ...not this time).

Weaker people would kill themselves? Only if they had abjured their faith and were intent on going to hell ...

The Bolter still has some way to go before he can finally do his Cardinal Newman/Oscar Wilde conversion (amazingly there's a wiki list of converts to the Catholic Church here). 

Why, as the Devine so cogently explained, the true believer would prefer crucifixion or beheading to craven sacrifice. It's martyrdom or nothing for the pious, though perhaps a tad easier for the Devine than for others ...

And so to the matter of a fair trial, which will allow the scattering of dust and ashes in the eyes of bystanders ...

As with the Devine, all this is mere colour and movement, and not about the actual matters which will be canvassed at trial.

Of course there's a good reason for that. What happens in court is a matter for the court. So why bother with all the other talk of Pell?

Well it's to drum up sympathy and to sway the mob, and it's as damaging and as meaningless as those who seek to damn Pell for his behaviour in past times ...

Uh huh. Speaking of Ridsdales, Pell notoriously accompanied Gerald Ridsdale to court (WaPo the story here), but discussing that is as irrelevant as discussing Minchin or David Ridsdale, unless the intent is to muddy the waters, and create confusion, and bring the entire system of justice into question ...

No doubt the defence will lead with this sort of character testimonial, but what's it doing in a Bolter column in the Herald Sun?

Pell is one of the pillars of our society?

Sorry, in this context, he's an individual, who will be judged either guilty or innocent, as the facts fall where they may ...

... which is why all those images of a holy figure are so curiously distorting and misleading ...

The funny thing here is that the Bolter routinely pronounces himself an agnostic. 

On the evidence, he has a yearning to be High Church Catholic. The sooner he comes out and starts chanting the Latin mass, the better for his mental health. It's not too late ... Christopher Pearson went from cheering on murderous Communist dictators to chanting meaningless Latin mumbo jumbo, and it would help the Australian justice system if the Bolter stuck with the Latin, and the Murdoch press lowered the chance of turning Pell's trial into a huge public circus ...

But there's no chance of that. There are too many points to be scored ...

The pond also saved this outburst by the meretricious Merritt for its Sunday meditation ...

It was more of the usual, bringing the entire legal process into question and disrepute ... though cunningly using another voice, that of Terry O'Gorman, to set the pace ...

Actually the pond is reminded of the trial of O. J. Simpson, rather than the clowns at work in the Northern Territory ...

That drive in the Bronco down one of LA's main drags remains one of the most famous pre-trial public declarations of guilt ever to be seen on live television.

And yet he got off ... even though it's more than a fair bet that he did it (no-one bothered to take up the Juice's offer to help find an alternative killer).

And yet, when looking at the way the prosecution botched its presentation of the case, it's easy to understand why the jury decided on a not guilty verdict. Within the strict terms of the law, the pond could easily have entered the same verdict, while at the same time believing that Simpson was as guilty as hell ...

But then the pond is comfortable with the jury system, which routinely delivers verdicts, even if occasionally a profoundly corrupt politician like Joh manages to slip through the system thanks to the corruption of a jury ...

Already the reptiles are building up a huge amount of coverage aimed at white-anting, undermining and sniping at any likely verdict, at least if it goes against Pell (if it goes for him, there will be an eternity of complaints about the prosecution of the innocent and the incompetence of Victorian plods). Think of the appeals to follow!

The bickering and brawling of David Marr and prattling Polonius on this morning on The Insiders is just the beginning of it ... the meretricious Meritt had already set the pace ...

In fact, all that's happened in the US is that jury-stacking has become another highly convoluted and in high profile cases, ridiculously expensive art form in the United States ... they even use it as fodder for criminal justice genre films, as in Runaway Jury ...

It's also typical that people with axes to grind come out when a high profile case hovers into view, so they can peddle their sharp insights about axing everything they don't like about the system ...

In the end, what this reveals is a profound contempt for ordinary people asked to perform their ordinary duty of serving on a jury of peers ...while setting up the defence argument should any appeal to be necessary.

It goes along with the trial by media perpetrated by the Murdochians in many other matters, and already begun in the matter of Pell, with the heavy presupposition by Merritt, the Bolter and the Devine that Pell is innocent, and is being made a martyr subject to unfair persecution ...

Actually there should be a change to media ownership in this country.

Fat chance of that ... though the pond thinks that Cardinal Pell has a much better chance of a fair trial than the justice system has a fair chance of coverage by the Murdochians when one of their favourites is up before the beak and jury ...

Thousands of Australians go through the gauntlet of the Australian justice system on a regular gasis, and usually the Murdochian chant is "guilty", along with chants for tougher sentencing, longer jail terms and tougher prisons ...

There's an irony somewhere in all this, but the pond instead will settle for a Tandberg cartoon ...