Sick, sick, sick: A media circus tale
So I'm looking out for Volusia and Flagler county headlines, pen and notepad in hand, on the 6 o'clock news. Every station's saturated with missing Orlando toddler Caylee Anthony.Today's updates, reverentially given: an itemized list of clothes recently seized from the Anthony home and movements of the family as they come and go. One reporter stops a little girl dropping by with a toy for her missing friend on Caylee's birthday.
Masses of broadcast personnel are set up in tents outside the house. They trail behind the family and friends with cameras and mics every time they appear.
How many children disappear every day? What makes TV decide who they'll saturate us with? Is the attention helping the case by keeping Caylee's face out there or desensitizing the public?
I might be in print journalism and technically we're in the same industry, but it's really hard to respect vultures.
Photo Paparazzi by Patrik Giardino courtesy Corbis
Labels: journalism
posted by Kari at 6:23 PM
2 Comments:
Part of the reason this case "took off" is good audio. I've heard the 911 calls and the phone conversations, numerous times. The grandparents' willingness to get out in front of the microphones doesn't hurt the broadcast media's need for visuals and sound, either.
For better or worse, there is a large crowd out there that gets wrapped up in the spectacle of cases like this.
It's sad and disgusting, but it's life.
I only wish some of them actually cared about the little girl.
You said it: Caylee's who this is about.
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