You may find this hard to believe, but I spent no time whatsoever following this case. I seriously thought Casey Anthony was a man until this morning because a single murder trial in some other state involving people I don’t know never concerned me and I have other things to think about all day long. There’s something very odd about an utterly prosaic murder trial like this becoming mass media entertainment. Why? What was it about this case that made it such a tabloid-media phenomenon?
Those among you who are outraged at the verdict but who also wonder why it is that baseball fans get so worked up over what you think are bad calls by the umpire, well, now you know what’s up with that.
Anyway, in the United States, the prosecution does not have a right of appeal and bound to accept a not guilty verdict by way of the prohibition against double jeopardy. So… C’est tout. Move along now. I heard a rumor that Vin Diesel is going to star in the movie remake of Kojak, so that’s the next irrelevancy you all can get excited about next.
The first I heard about the case, that I am aware of, was last Friday when I went to pick my sister up at the airport. It was on some TV they had in the baggage claim area. So yeah, I don’t quite understand what the hoopla is about.
Ditto. Well, except the part about the sister. Or the airport.
Hear hear. Unfortunately I did have the awareness of Casey Anthony’s gender – caused by too much casual exposure to the big babysitter in the family room I suppose, but the public saturation of this case was far too reminiscent of the days of “Camp OJ” to allow for even a handful of passing glances at any given day’s events. Both the Anthony and Simpson cases – for what its worth – point to a conclusion that televised trials are a terrible idea on many levels. They point out why 24 hour news shows are not particularly healthy, for they’ll create “news” when none is readily available to fill the air space. Televised trials also provide a ready made excuse for people to pay attention to things which ought not to be focused upon intently, at the expense of things which ought to be at the center of human concern. My $.02
I had not heard of the case until the verdict; my first exposure then was hearing a call to criminally prosecute the jury members by a radio guy.
I still know almost nothing about is, except that the thrust of the case is that the defendant was a promiscuous hottie who killed her child so that she could continue a life of partying without responsibility. Which sounds more like an overly sensationalized made for tv event than a serious murder trial.
I’ve done my best to remain as ignorant about the whole thing as I can. My goal is that, a year from now, hearing “Casey Anthony” will make me think “Didn’t he used to play second base for the Astros?”
Yeah, but his rookie years were in Mudville.
Everyone’s getting excited about it for the same reason that Reality TV has become popular. Americans have always had a very strong streak of Puritanism in our basic philosophy, but we’re also told that it’s wrong to call out the bad behavior of racial minorities because It’s Not Their Fault They’re Just All Oppressed And Stuff.
So here’s some white people behaving badly, and at last–at last!–here’s someone that we’re allowed to revile. And damn if it doesn’t feel good.
Everyone who studies Orwell focuses on Big Brother, but nobody seems to give much thought to the Two Minutes Hate.
Wow. Just… wow.
Yes, the media never focuses on the misdeeds of minorities. Never, ever. Local news isn’t a calvacade of Scary Minorities are Going to Rape You, then Take Your Children at all.
But even then it’s faceless, nameless Awful People (and surely not anyone we know.)
Um, I don’t know what local news you’re watching, but I see plenty of black and brown people being perped walked and named.
Be that as it may, it sure seems to me that the crimes that attract Nancy Grace attention almost always involve white people. Typically white victims, but usually involving white culprits, as well. And it’s those culprits we get to know, as DD puts it.
There was this basketball player that killed some people. Maybe he was a football player, I don’t recall exactly. Anyway, it seems to me that he got a lot of publicity too.
Yes, because a counterexample to my definitive statement about “usually involving white culprits.”
In any event, OJ Simpson was a celebrity. We already knew him, which is one of the reasons why the story was so closely watched. Meanwhile, we were introduced to the likes of Amanda Knox, Andrea Yates, Casey Anthony, and so on.
People (particularly white people) are more interested in crimes involving white people. Not so much because of reverse racism or whatever, but because they relate to (or are more familiar with) the principal players within the drama.
Or another way of looking at it, white victims get more attention. And white victims often come with white culprits. Black criminals more often come with black victims.
> I heard a rumor that Vin Diesel is going to
> star in the movie remake of Kojak, so that’s
> the next irrelevancy you all can get
> excited about next.
Irrelevancy? Man, that’s *huge*. That’s like Matt Damon is going to play Steve Keller opposite Donald Sutherland’s Mike Stone.
Have a look if you can stomach it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gOSsvLIO4&feature=player_embedded
This is Fox dismissing the News of the World hacking scandal as old news, move along folks, nothing to see here, a distraction from the serious issues facing the country. Next up: Casey Anthony.