The Capitalization of Tragedy

By Diane M. Grassi


As we enter the spring season of 2005 and begin to reflect on the ravages of a long, cold, and wet winter, we have witnessed many types of personal tragedy and trying times across the country which are but a reflection of our society and culture. Many such events have captured media attention and it is the amount and display of such that deserve scrutiny. And if we had to grade our collective behavior in reaction to such tragic cases, we would barely earn a passing grade.

The media and our cultural biases have turned us into a populace of rubberneckers. One “accident” awaits upstaging by another. Focus on the trials of Scott Peterson, Robert Blake, and Michael Jackson lost the limelight to Brian Nichols’ shooting rampage in an Atlanta courthouse only to be lifted from the headlines by missing 9-year-old, Jessica Lunsford, found dead in Florida, followed up by the government’s hijacking of the Terri Schiavo case.

Celebrity justice has been a revenue generator for television and radio broadcast networks, print journalism and the internet for quite a while now but prior to the O.J. Simpson case was mostly relegated to the gossip page and fluff commentary. Say what you will about the advent of cable television as the cause of the obsession of coverage, but it is rather the love of the almighty dollar which generates the wall-to-wall coverage of much repetitious speculation and punditry. Yet making a potential mockery out of cases with little regard for the victims and their families has but meant a well of potential big bucks from the television and radio broadcast networks and their advertisers, to newspapers and magazine publications as well as to the instant book publishers.

On the positive side the press plays an important role and does an admiral job in assisting law enforcement in bringing to justice many of the criminals involved in heinous crimes. While technology has greatly increased the odds in successfully hunting down the accused, television coverage and radio talk shows give new meaning to sensationalism.

During the recent hostage taking of Ashley Smith after Brian Nichols’ escape from the Atlanta courthouse after killing three followed by the murder of a federal agent, a direct result of Smith’s heroism spawned another cash cow. Rick Warren, author of A Purpose Driven Life, previously a best seller before the Nichols ordeal, was read to Nichols by Smith during her kidnapping. Since then Warren has wormed his way into the nightly news shows, daily talk shows as well as on radio while additionally pontificating about the Terri Schiavo case. A southern Baptist pastor who created his own Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, Warren has become the go-to guy for his commentary not only on the “purpose” of Smith’s bravery but on the demise of Terri Schiavo’s life.

So too there is a great deal of speculation as to the ulterior motives of the Congress placing itself into the middle of the Schiavo ordeal and the questions beg for answers. Will Republicans for example gain political favor in their stance in calling for and later passing unprecedented legislation, forcing the federal court to revisit the Schiavo case? They too as well as the White House had something to gain and are no better than the media or Rick Warren in their goal of profiting from a tragedy and public spectacle, while preying upon peoples’ emotions on a very personal issue.

Jurors are another revenue generator as they await potential book contracts and hit the talk show circuit as well following their service in the Scott Peterson, Robert Blake and Michael Jackson trials for instance. But fame is fleeting so it will take a publisher like Regan Books to quickly find ghost writers for jurors who are not necessarily writers nor supposed to be writing books during the jury trial process.

Amber Frey was able to work out a deal with Judith Regan of Regan Books, subsidiary of Harper Collins, in telling her story about being the state’s star witness in the Scott Peterson case. The book titled, Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, describes her relationship with Scott Peterson and her later relationship with the Modesto, CA police in secretly recording over 200 phone conversations at the behest of the police with the now convicted murderer. In her own way, Frey was a hero in this saga, and stuck to her story throughout the trial, testified, did not accept any remuneration for over two years, until her book was published. However, her book was on the shelves within weeks of Scott Peterson’s conviction and before his sentencing date. She perhaps should have waited until after sentencing in order to profit from her role in the case and it would have maybe looked less unseemly to her critics. Likewise, Scott Peterson’s half-sister, Anne Byrd, had a book on the shelves just prior to the sentencing of her brother. Regan Books published Blood Brother and along with Frey’s book became national bestsellers.

But girlfriends and sisters aside, had we not have been inundated with coverage all day all the time of events cherry picked by our media we might take such matters more seriously. They now become fodder for late night comedians and Saturday Night Live. And what is so sad is that issues which arise from crimes or matters of the court are quite serious, worthy of our attention and should not be tuned out.

The coverage we receive is not so much educational as distasteful and tends to backfire in its purported goal. And headlines are manufactured by the media. Why someone’s tragedy or joy is more important than another’s we may never know, and unfortunately we are not participants in the process as much as the media honchos repeatedly state that they only “air what the people want.” Sadly, there is a disconnect from the media and the public much like the public’s relationship with legislators and judges who similarly cherry pick the issues they will address.

And while it is more than acceptable for us to speculate about one’s purpose in life in striving to be the best that we can be, it should not be at the expense of others’ misfortunes. We have ultimately turned into a tabloid culture where instant celebrity is attainable, whether murderer or saint. Our news culture is the equivalent of the American strip mall which looks identical throughout the country and leaves little room for imagination. We are force fed a diet of drive-through journalism which mainly settles for the status quo in a competition to scoop the other media outlet.

But most importantly as consumers of the media, we must keep in mind that it is a business and not a public service. We must be ever more vigilante in discriminating in what is presented as true, that which is mere speculation and how much of it is just pure entertainment. That used to be the job of the media, now unfortunately it somehow has become ours.