Great journalism, among other things, is measured, fair, nuanced and loaded with context. Great journalism is not sensational.

Journalists are curious and suspicious. Like defense attorneys, journalists are oftentimes put in position where they have to explain what seems indefensible. Curiosity and suspicion caused me to look at the Duke lacrosse players (rape) and Bernie Fine (child molestation) different from some of my peers.

We’re at that point again with Greg Hardy (domestic violence). His actions a year ago are indefensible. I will not defend them.

What I will do is try to provide the necessary context so you can understand the actions of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the NFL and the NFLPA.

Much of the alleged journalism we’re seeing in regards to Hardy is sloppy and unprofessional.

Our criminal justice system convicted Hardy of misdemeanor domestic assault charges last year, sentencing him to probation and a 60-day suspended sentence. By later having his appeal dropped and his record expunged, Hardy did not buy his way out of prison, as some have stated and/or suggested.

Becky Thorne Tin, a white North Carolina judge far more experienced at litigating domestic violence issues than members of the media, chose not to send Hardy to prison. Tin, Mecklenburg County district attorney Andrew Murray (white) and assistant district attorney Jamie Adams (black female) saw pictures of the victim’s and Hardy’s injuries, reviewed the pertinent statements and testimony and deemed the crime a misdemeanor.

Why?

Did a white woman, a white man and a black woman with deep knowledge of our criminal justice system scheme to let a hulking black man escape prison for beating “the hell” out of a white woman?

Greg Hardy (right) was on the field against the Eagles on Sunday after Cowboys owner Jerry Jones issued a statement in support of the troubled pass rusher.

This seems unlikely inside Judge Tin’s courtroom. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, Judge Tin is the co-chair of her alma mater’s battered women’s advocacy project. In 2007, Judge Tin was involved in a controversial case related to domestic violence that left her, by her own admission, “traumatized.” Over the objections of 32-year-old Sonia Long, Judge Tin issued a less-restrictive restraining order against Long’s estranged husband, Anthony Long. One week later, Anthony Long murdered his wife.

Domestic violence is an issue Judge Tin likely takes more seriously than the sports writers pontificating about what Jerry Jones and the Cowboys should do with Greg Hardy.

So why did the system that specializes in handling these issues go far easier on Hardy than Roger Goodell and the NFL?

Probably because our criminal justice system deals with thousands of domestic issues annually, has a more mature perspective and doesn’t – at the moment – have to answer to the outrage media.

Hardy and his victim, Nicole Holder, did not live together at the time of the incident. Both parties reportedly drank to great excess. Holder admitted using cocaine on the night of the altercation. She also conceded hitting and/or attacking Hardy and his assistant, Sammy Curtis. She attributed the injuries on her arms to Curtis, whom she claimed forcibly carried/removed her from the tiny bedroom/office where the main incident took place. Hardy, not Holder, called police.

Reading the police reports and interviews paints a muddy picture of a highly dysfunctional relationship soaked – for at least one night – in alcohol, cocaine and mistrust. It inevitably erupted into a flurry of drunken violence that left Holder bruised and Hardy cut. A story published in the Charlotte Observer in February offered an explanation why the district attorney dropped the case rather than fight Hardy’s appeal. Holder’s lack of cooperation is far from the lone reason.

“Victims and witnesses routinely stop cooperating in domestic-abuse cases and prosecutors still take the cases to court. Murray, though, said the Hardy case was different. He also appeared to raise doubts about Holder’s credibility in a statement to the judge. But other details also raised unanswered questions about prosecutors’ handling of the case. Hardy’s defense team announced an appeal of his conviction before leaving court in July. But Murray said prosecutors only “recently” had compared what Holder told police the night of the alleged assault with her testimony at Hardy’s first trial.”

Greg Hardy has been described as a “monster” in one of this country’s most influential publications. He’s been labeled “garbage human” on TV. There are countless calls to have him removed from the NFL. Again, I’m not here to defend Hardy. His actions a year ago are unworthy of defense.

But I have also taken indefensible, violent actions in my lifetime. As a 22-year-old at Ball State University, drunk and jealous, I beat up a male student half my size inside a popular bar because I was bothered by the way he danced with a girl I liked. The next day the girl called me irate and demanding that I pay for the boy’s bloodied and torn shirt. I was mortified. I apologized profusely. I made restitution. More important, I committed to a life of non-violence. I evolved.

America is the land of second and third chances. Greg Hardy shouldn’t be allowed to play in the NFL because our courts convicted and then vacated a misdemeanor assault conviction?

Is great journalism reading through documents, cherry-picking damning information and framing those facts in the most sensational fashion? Where’s the context? Where’s the fairness? Where’s the journalistic consistency? Just five months ago, the writer responsible for this Hardy “investigation” wrote a piece exploring soccer goalie Hope Solo’s violent, criminal behavior. (Prosecutors have pursued the case without cooperation from Solo’s victims.) The article is titled “Hope Solo Is Not A Problem.” It makes the point that the NFL, the U.S. Women’s National Team and other entertainment executives are “unqualified to play judge and jury” on these issues. The writer ends the piece with these words:

“But don’t get mad over Solo playing. Sports fans long ago learned to accept our male heroes as anything but heroic. It’s time to let our women be the same.”

Are we in the media and blogosphere qualified to play judge and jury? At the moment, we’re struggling to play journalists.

Photo credits: Jamie Squire/Getty Images (top); Ronald Martinez/Getty Images (bottom)