Too Much To Dream

Media Bores

Am I the only one who is not obsessed with this poor dead woman? I have noticed one thing about people who go on and on about the horror of media circuses such as this and how they compromise our justice system: they are, nevertheless, still watching.

I mean, hey, it's a Free Country®, do whatever the hell you want. But I'd like to go on the record as saying 1) I did not watch the obsessive OJ trial coverage (I couldn't escape seeing it in friend's houses or hearing the talk about it at work, but that was out of my control); 2) I never watched any of the Clinton/Monica crap; 3) I avoided the Elian scandals, the Leona Helmsley foofaraws, and the 2000 Election Debacle®. I long for the days when they forbade cameras in the courtroom. Cameras are no better at "revealing the truth" (something we all learned after the Rodney King fiasco, which I also didn't watch) than the sketches of the courtroom artists who found themselves out of a job the minute teevee took over.

This country was supposed to be a representative democracy. Our elected officials are supposed to be the ones to deal with all the messy details of herding this giant army of cats we call America. We the people tell our representatives what we want, our representatives are thus kept busy trying to juggle these often-contradictory desires, and eventually make compromises that make the least amount of people unhappy. But I am seeing a shift towards a messier, less-workable sort of "democracy" -- one which can slide into "mob rule" at the drop of a hat. This is my roundabout way of saying that I agree with Talkleft's premise that the blabbing going on and on about this Peterson dude is just not right.

I wish we'd go back to the days of no cameras in the courtroom -- at the very least, it would provide jobs for starving artists again. It would also lend some dignity and distance from the smelly crowd to a justice system that desperately needs it. What can I say, I was raised on Perry Mason. But that's not going to happen -- there are still too many people that think that being on teevee is the be-all and end-all of existence.

Anyway, my media blackout continues. How so many other people can stand the kindergarten level of discourse served up to them from the other glowing box I will never get. I never could stand being talked down to myself.