Afterthoughts On Casey Anthony Sideshow

Now this blog normally doesn’t care about the horribly fickle trend of sensational criminal trials that take over news cycles for weeks, months, and even years. Case in point: the recently concluded Casey Anthony trial, which involves a sad but rare crime (allegedly), another state, and no official misconduct or systematic problem that effects the life of anyone not involved. Thus, this case is completely none of my business, and I don’t know if the jury made the right decision or not.

The issue that affects me is that this is just another case that took up space on the headlines, endless hours of news coverage, and conversation. This is part of the dumbing down of America and of our national conversations. One must just ask if there was more coverage by the media of this case than coverage of union rights, poverty, or the many violent conflicts around the world. More people know the specifics about this case than they do about the specifics of healthcare reform or the growing gap between the rich and poor.

There are only two good things brought about by the conclusion of the Casey Anthony trial. The first is that the news cycles may finally be able to concentrate on more important issues (yet this case, as others before it, will probably be replaced by another involving the unfortunate disappearance or murder of an attractive woman or girl). The second positive is that Nancy Grace might actually shut up for once. The narcissism of this horrible “news” personality has always had the ability to make me angry just from mere channel surfing. I am 100% sure that she had a whole ton of lines practiced for when the jury was expected to come back with a guilty verdict. That being said, maybe it isn’t as much of a plus after all. Now Nancy can act like some kind of victim following the “unjust” justice brought by the jury.

The prosecutor in the Anthony trial said something interesting after losing his case:

“For us the case has never been about the defendant in particular, it’s always about, it has always been, about seeking justice for Caylee and speaking on her behalf. Some have exploited the case for personal gain; ad revenues, or 15 minutes of fame. And since day 1 we’ve kept our promise that we would be focusing on finding and proving the truth about this trial’s homicide” (CBS12).

Nancy Grace makes her living off of the deaths and sadness of other people. While a news anchor or documentarian can easily defend their coverage of a war zone or injustice by pointing out that the issue is one that needs exposure, Nancy Grace can’t say this and in fact may hurt those she is claiming to protect.

Speaking out against the verdict Grace recently said, “the devil is dancing tonight.” I agree, Nancy is dancing all the way to the bank.