ENOUGH Pretty Dead Girls on the News! (*Vanity Rant*)

HairOfTheDog

[HairOfTheDog]

The only positive this may serve is if other young women listen to these horrific details of what happened so they don't end up being the next national story! Maybe some moms would be more concerned with daughters walking home alone and keping closer tabs on them.

HUH? I don't ~know~ of a time when parents were MORE paranoid and nervous about abduction than they are now. My friends don't even let their kids play outside any more. Do kids even own bikes any more? I don't know where they'd be allowed to ride them.

[HairOfTheDog]

It's Ma'am...

What do you want a pardon for, exactly?

[HitmanLV]

Stories like this are just sexy, and people are interested in them. It's a very sexy scene that ends in disaster: an attractive woman meets a hunky man and just this once throws caution to the wind and decideds to indulge. This decision often costs the woman her life.

It doesn't matter much whether the actual facts in any one given story fit that pattern, that's the unspoken subtext. People love that kind of story, especially because it ends tragically.

As to what this says about people, I'll leave that up to your judgement. Sex sells. Violence sells. Sex & violence in a news story with a pretty girl is good for business, because people want it.

[Ron in Acreage]

Leftist media will portray Smith as victim after sentence is handed down. They'll cry bad childhood etc., etc.

[HairOfTheDog]

And I happen to think that is tendency we ought to suppress rather than embrace, don't you?

[Muleteam1]

It's the rubber-neck gene in humans. Some day humans will actually be able to rotate their head completely around like an owl so they won't miss any of the blood and guts. Although Greta might look better if her head was on backwards, she is just following in the footsteps of the greats who have made their fortunes providing food for rubbernecks, e.g., Springer, Winfrey, Downey, Jr., and the many court tv shows hosts to name a few.

[HairOfTheDog]

Springer, Winfrey, Downey, Jr., and the many court tv shows

They used to be much more niche markets... when they're breaking into regular programming to cover this stuff live, they're making it mainstream.

I like to monitor the news all day while I work at home. This crap just shouldn't be national news.

[HairOfTheDog]

You're right. I'm mad at both media and audience here.

[HairOfTheDog]

Pinging some friends...

I feel better for having ranted this, but it's still on.

[Ramius]

Spot on.

[Muleteam1]

I despise this stuff so much that I have to be honest that I have never actually seen a Springer or Oprah Winfrey show. But the ones that deserve the greatest of my scorn are the many court tv things, Court TV, Judge Judy, etc. People just like to see someone more hapless than themselves I suppose.

Muleteam1

[eastforker]

On the other hand HOTD, maybe, just maybe by publicizing this, another child might not be raped and killed.Of course we will never know if it does or not.

[RMDupree]

This is perverted voyeurism pretending to be righteous outrage and I see right through it.

You are exactly (and very sadly) right, chica.

[HitmanLV]

Personally supress, yes.

Institutionally supress, yes.

Thing is, the only way we can institutionally supress the tendency is for like minded people to run the media. Since there will always be somebody in the media who give attention to these stories, the like minded folks are forced to compete with them for ratings, circulation, etc.

A few bad eggs in the bunch damage the discourse for everyone.

[brytlea]

I understand what you're saying, but what it really brought home to me was just what an inhuman monster the guy was. It reinforced to me the necessity of the death penalty. The guy is a poster child for it. And there are alot of him out there.....
susie

[SoothingDave]

Well said! Where is the liberal media on this story:

That girl isn't blond.

SD

[HairOfTheDog]

I got into trial coverage myself for awhile... CourtTV used to cover trials that were good legal intrigue... I watched part of a handgun liability suit, the nanny shaken baby case, even the OJ trial and others about murders where the facts were in dispute and the cases on each side interesting. But they've become monolithic; ALL now are about sex, torture, sex, perversion, and sex.

And they're typically watched here on FR by people who would never give themselves permission to watch movies about such vile plots... they think it's OK because it's news.

[Pyro7480]

Ping to an interesting P.O.V.

[HairOfTheDog]

On the other hand HOTD, maybe, just maybe by publicizing this, another child might not be raped and killed.Of course we will never know if it does or not.

On the other hand, the most vile details and ideas are in all our heads now. We're normalizing this! We now think it's NORMAL to suspect EVERYONE of being some kind of closet pervert.

[onyx]

Thank you, but I like to watch the sentencing of murderous cretins.