Media Motivation

Just the other day the verdict in the Casey Anthony case was handed down by a jury of her peers in Florida. For whatever strange reason, the rendering of this verdict has caused the internet to explode in a bizarre singularity of vigilantism and rage.

Let me be upfront: I have no dog in this fight regarding her guilt or innocence. Hell, I had no idea who this chick was or what she had done until the internet went nuts. If people are of the opinion that the verdict rendered is the incorrect one, it's not my place to shatter that worldview.

That being said, I reiterate: I had never heard of this chick or what she had done. One might find that surprising, since some would consider me to be relatively up-to-date on most important happenings in the world. The emphasis is on “important.” That's the thing: the places I generally frequent for news never advertised the existence of this trial to a meaningful degree. Sure, there were probably small links squirreled away somewhere, but they never caught my eye. I missed the entire lead-up (apparently this has been simmering for two years?) to the trial and the coverage of the trial (apparently CNN's Nancy Grace went all out stumping for this woman's guilt?); that I receive and therefore consume most of my news from sources that aren't CNN/FOX/NBC/CBS probably has a great deal to do with it.

See, I'm a guy in the media industry (home media, and residing below the scrapings of the bottom of the barrel at that, but media nonetheless). If there's one trend I've noticed over the past few years, it's that news media has become sensationalized to an absurd degree. Coupled with this has been the existence of the 24-hour news cycle and the need to fill the time comprising said cycle with interesting tidbits to catch and keep viewers' interests. After all, news corporations are just that: corporations. They like money just as much as everyone else, and if someone's not watching you they could well be watching your competitors.

Enter what I call manufactured news. It's news that really, at the end of the day, isn't newsworthy to a great many people. Why do I say it isn't newsworthy? Because it has no practical bearing on the daily lives of the people in question. It's a dramatic, time-filling attention grabber.

An example: back in 2009 there was the wonderful saga of Balloon Boy. Some kid got into his father's homemade balloon and listed through the air for a few hours. Well, not really. It turns out he was just hiding in the parents' garage and it ended up being a great big attention whoring hoax, but every single media source had boots on the ground covering this incredible affair.

Now, Balloon Boy's saga had interest at the outset. I mean, how often does a kid hijack his dad's hot air balloon for a joyride? I ended up following the story, but I and many others had my reservations about what was actually happening. The media, though, was 101% sure this balloon held this kid and omigod it's getting close to the ground and police have set up a perimeter....And what do you know? No kid. Huh. But everyone was positive—positive—that little Falcon Heene was inside. Why? Because that's what the talking heads had told us was the case.

Once the balloon had landed and the child was discovered not to have been aboard and was in fact safe and sound at home, what then? Well, the parents had to give a statement. They had to go on news talk shows. They had to milk their fifteen minutes of fame for all they were worth. And the American media loved every minute because the American people were hooked. Instead of covering real news (for example, the debacle which passed for debate over the Obama health bill), they could devote their attention to a feeding frenzy of not-news.

So, here we go (and this is where I'll probably piss off more than a few people). The exact same thing happened with Casey Anthony. Yes, her daughter was found dead. Tragic. And the mother was accused of killing her? Depicable!

But let me pose this question, dear reader: How many two year olds die every day across the world? Or to make the question fairer: how many die in the U.S. every day? Narrowing it further: how many suffer deaths of neglect or violent malice aforethought inflicted by their parents? Surely it is more than one. Why is Casey Anthony worthy of this media attention when tens(?), dozens(?), hundreds(???) of these incidents remain anonymous and unreported?

Here's my cynical answer: Because the mother is an attractive white woman being the victim of a horrible tragedy before the tale morphed into one of an attractive white woman being the perpetrator of atrocity.

So very many people (including, in a delicious bit of irony, Kim Kardashian) have expressed shock and outrage at the jury's ruling on this case. But step back for one second. From where has everyone's information on the subject come? And what would be the most lucrative course of action for the source to pursue? And whose interests are REALLY being furthered?

Again, I'm not trying to demean the opinions of those who feel Casey Anthony should burn eternally in hellish agony as burning hooks of obsidian are used to flay every square inch of her damned flesh. But everyone would do well to consider the motivations of those who do anything for others' supposed benefit. The news people weren't being altruistic and objective in their coverage of this case. Hell, I'm not being altruistic and objective in my discussion of the news peoples' coverage of this case. If you, dear reader, are scoffing at my words for being loaded and having an ulterior motive behind them, I only ask that you look at the logic driving your decision regarding my reporting and to apply it impartially.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.