So, I was listening to National Public Radio on my way home from work today and I heard a story by Eric Deggans that riled me about several aspects of human nature. His story delved into the recent increase of stories on ABC News about "women-in-peril."
It has been about two weeks since Casey Anthony was acquitted of charges that she killed her daughter Caylee--intentionally or otherwise. I don't know if she killed Caylee. I think she probably knows how her daughter died, and she was definitely wrong not to report her missing in a more timely manner than thirty-one days. I think even if the truth about what happened to Caylee had come out in the course of Anthony's trial, and she had clearly been proven innocent of the crime, we'd all still be outraged by her lies and the fact that she waited so long to say "Oh, by the way, that little toddler girl that usually hangs out with me, she's totally missing." I don't think anyone would question that she was a very bad mother, regardless of her guilt or innocence.
On the other hand, there's something about everyone's outrage and attention to this case that outrages me: our obsession with it. People waited outside the courthouse overnight for opportunities to be right there to witness the court proceedings. They wanted to be there to hear all of the juicy details. They wanted to be there to try and imagine what the smell of "death and decay" emanating from a car trunk is like. They were hoping to hear firsthand that Casey Anthony had gotten impatient with her child and killed her accidentally. They wanted to be the first to hear that her clubbing lifestyle didn't have room in it for a two-year-old, and so she offed her as a matter of convenience.
When we salivate over every detail about a two-year-old's death, are we really that much better than someone like Casey Anthony? I don't know.
Over the last week, I saw a story about an 8-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy who had been snatched while walking home for the first time from his day camp. The reporter said that what had happened to the child's body was so terrible that his mother wasn't being told. Right or wrong, I wondered, what could the killer have done that was so horrible that I as a mother couldn't be told?
As I think about the sensationalism that surrounds crimes like these, I realize that's really not any of my business. My knowing what happened to that little boy won't change the fact that he is gone forever. It won't rebuild the trust within a community that rarely experiences any incident even remotely like this. I should just walk on.
When Eric Deggans was talking about ABC airing their interview with a rape victim, not once, but twice, because the ratings for the first airing were so high, it made me ashamed of all of us. When he said that he was told ABC hiring Elizabeth Smart (another victim of sexual crime) as an on-air commentator to discuss crimes like these and this interview being aired multiple times was purely coincidental and not a sign that sensationalizing horrific crimes committed against women and children is a new ratings push, I doubted those words.
Sex and horror draw attention. We all want to know just how bad bad can be.
News organizations have a gun to their heads because we just can't get enough of the horror of everything. Reporters working for News Corps have been arrested for participating in voice mail hackings of politicians, celebrities, the royal family and a murdered thirteen-year-old girl. Why? Because we all want the story. Nearly fourteen years ago, a thirty-six year old woman in a car with her date in Paris was chased into a tunnel by paparazzi on motorcycles. Her car tragically wrecked, and she was killed. She was a princess, but wasn't she a human first? We wanted the pictures of her and Dodi together, and when she was dead, some clamored for the last pictures of her alive--or even dead.
It seems to me the exploitation of victims in this manner is another crime committed against them, even if some of them become active participants. It's almost a twisted kind of Stockholm Syndrome, in which victims willingly relive their crimes because their media and audience captors tell them things like: "You're so brave, telling your story will save someone else;" "Sharing what happened to you will give you closure;""You have the right to tell your side of things."
It's a great big load of crap. The truth--you telling your story will sell some Cialis, or maybe some face cream. Human nature led to your initial victimization, evolution is the only thing that is going to save someone else. Being sharper, faster or stronger is the only thing that is going to help you protect yourself from someone who is trying to hurt you--period, because unfortunately it's also human nature to stand by while someone else is being hurt. It's very rare for anyone to intervene.
I know this, because another recent story in my local news is beyond the pale. A woman walking about two blocks away from my house passed out and multiple witnesses saw her being sexually assaulted by someone who "thought she was dead" and did absolutely nothing. When we all want the trashy details and the scoop, is it really that hard to imagine that the reason people did nothing is because they just couldn't take their eyes off of such a riveting scene?
I know that there are mothers out there who saw the outcome of the Casey Anthony trial and thought that even though raising a child is difficult, trying, and sometimes drives them nuts, they would never kill their child. Anyone who would kill their child should be strung up and hanged while the rest of us throw rocks at her. I wonder, before Casey Anthony allegedly killed her daughter, if she ever thought the same thing?
Sorry folks, show's over. You have to accept the fact that you don't get to know.
http://youtu.be/FV6bFBNHlpg
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