The Dragon's Tail

I used to find it unnerving that it should be leave it up to the White House to investigate itself over mistakes that may have enabled 911, but I failed to realize that the media already does this sort of thing all the time. Rarely, though, have I seen this self-indictment occur with such passion as when a strange man in Bangkok confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

The national news media have suddenly flipped to another face. The eye that used to glare at the Ramsey's in suspicion has softened to a look of reverance and pity, while scorning whatever evils happened to inflict such misery on these American martyrs.

It's surreal.

Last Thursday's Primetime provided a telling example, and a particularly dizzying one because of all the questions it presented the audience over the media's handling of the case. I'm no Aristotle, but I don't think we're the ones who should have to answer them.

-Why were the parents criticized for seeming detached in their public appearances?

-Why were theories of an intruder committing the murder dwarfed by the far less credible allegations that, say, that Mrs. Ramsey murdered her in a fit of rage when learning she had wet the bed?

-Primetime started showing photos of JonBenet in a T-shirt and jeans, or JonBenet in pajamas, which I have never seen in my life. I was unaware that the girl wore anything besides a black-and-white cocktail dress and layers of make-up. Asked Primetime, why all the pageant pictures and no normal little girl photos to accompany the stories?

"So what was it," asked Primetime finally, "that made people all around the country mourn the death of this little girl?"

Hmm. Was it, umm... YOU?

You. ABC News. The National Enquirer. The media. All of you, who spent the last decade airing or printing these "breakthroughs" of how the parents just aren't fainting on camera to appease us or how the son must have been homicidally jealous of his sister's attention. Let it be said that the publicity overkill you gave this case brought it many investigative resources it wouldn't have otherwise had, but the Ramsey's have to weigh that against ten years of hell. And let's hope they find that overdue justice for their daughter is worth the cost.

But the strangest part is the praise they bestow upon them now. Watch how many of these shows and articles suddenly underline the suffering of the Ramsey's, as if to highlight the durability of the human spirit. Coming from shows like Primetime, much of this treatment translates into: "These courageous parents... how did they find the strength to carry on after all the shit we did to them?"

At the end, Primetime asked us another question: What made JonBenet so appealing to the media? Why her, and not 9-year-old Amber Hagerman from Arlington (does the term "Amber Alert" sound familiar?) whose still-unsolved murder took place the same year? Primetime didn't speculate for too long on this one. But yes -- yes, as opposed to the 800 other American prepubescent girls who were both sexually assaulted and murdered that year -- why JonBenet Ramsey?

One can legitimately say that it was a matter of social class, or age, or the perverted sexual intrigue of child beauty pageants, or hair color for Christ's sake, but you can't look to these news programs to openly submit any answers. It's already too obvious. The news media are stabbing at the dragon's tail, which we can plainly see runs right up and around to their own ass.

In my wacko dreamland, the media would end this superficial self-indictment right now. News programs and magazines, then, would say nothing to the American public on the matter except for whether established pedophile John Mark Karr is guilty, and if so, whether he'll be put to death, and if so, with how many volts.