Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Bread and Circuses and JonBenet

If the JonBenet Ramsey case isn't enough of a circus already it just got another ring under the Big Top. The relatives of John Mark Karr, the self-proclaimed child killer, have offered the movie and book rights to the family's story in hopes of hiring a high-level attorney to defend the schoolteacher against charges he killed 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. This is of course before we even know if Karr murdered JonBenet.

Not to sound cruel but really what difference does it make if Karr killed JonBenet or not? What difference would it make in anyone's like outside his and the Ramsey's family? Since this either mentally ill killer or just mentally ill nutbag turned up in Thailand to proclaim his "love" for the little girl he says he was with when she died there has been non-stop coverage on cable. It's like every other channel is the "JonBenet murder" channel. But ask yourself this - if Karr did kill her so what? How does this have an impact on child murder rates, child safety issues, crime rates, crime prevention, your own childrens' safety, your community, anything? Zero. So why does it get such wall-to-wall coverage? It's just more of the circus of celebrity crime or crimes that become celebrated. Think about that. Celebrating crime.

When I see anything about JonBenet or John Karr on t.v. I turn the channel as fast as if I ran across Sabado Gigante. No point in watching since I can't understand it and it has zero impact on my life. So how is the Ramsey murder case the biggest story in the nation? Because we are fascinated with crime and sex and death and punishment, especially punishment by death. And what about our complicity in turning America into ancient Rome, before the fall, with its foreign military adventures stretching the nation too thin and celebrating the bread and circuses of the Coliseum? Ask me later, I'm too distracted watching cable from the bleachers.

6 Comments:

Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

Personally I prefer the news in Spanish. I only understand a small part of it, but the women news readers are more attractive.

2:39 PM  
Blogger d.K. said...

Well, you can relax. The new, hot story is that Paramount Pictures canned Tom Cruise. Sheesh.

8:09 PM  
Blogger Crankyboy said...

Sheesh is right.

9:47 PM  
Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

First Prince Albert, now Tom Cruise. At least he's in good company.

8:36 AM  
Blogger Ellen Beth Gill said...

They keep using that poor girl, in life as a toddler beauty queen and sex object, then in death as the media circus you describe. Now, the right wing media gets to use her as a distraction.

I prefer BBC news, but yesterday they disappointed me by running the Tom Cruise story. Sheesh

9:43 AM  
Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

You didn't expect that the usual suspects wouldn't be making a fuss about this did you? AM hate radio, WFTL in Palm Beach's Neal Boortz is now bloviating that the whole thing is a hoax and because there is a picture of Karr's Kids without Karr on the day of the murder, he could not have done it and it's all the fault of the liberal press that is so soft on crime.

Somehow, no matter what it's all about, it's all about Liberals.

11:51 AM  

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