Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power The Rise and Risks of the New Conservative Hate Culture

Chapter One Hate Sells Meet Its Prime-time Peddler, Nancy Grace I can see them nowendless waves of humanoids, one might suppose from another planet; an angry mob stretching from coast to coast; millions of staring, hating voyeurs melded to their screens, watching some bloodthirsty blonde eviscerate whoever has been tabbed as the day's victim. In times past, say, in Rome at the Colosseum, the crowd was enthralled by blood and gore and human entrails torn from the prey of starved beasts. The lionesses then were as vicious as the ripping blondes on our television screens. Today's worldwide Colosseum is called television. No metaphor is ever perfect, but the similarities are startling; and but for the damage these women wreak on human dignity and truth, perhaps vaguely amusing. CNN, on the cliff's edge of bankruptcy, needed a lioness. Their ratings were headed over the cliff. Then they found Nancy Grace and released her into the arena. Some say she saved the network. As you remember, the issue in the Michael Jackson case was simple: Did the state prove its case against Jackson as a child molesterbeyond a reasonable doubt? This is still America. Her ladyship, Ms. Grace, found Michael Jackson guilty from the first day. Maybe he was. Maybe not. But there was no doubt in her mind, although she was never in the courtroom. She didn't observe the witnesses, didn't see their faces, hear their voices, watch the lawyers, or listen to the judge, as did the jury. She sat in her studio a couple of thousand miles away, and before the case took its first judicial breath she found Michael Jackson guilty. Presumably beyond a reasonable doubt. The presumption of innocence, a sacred American rightwhat has happened to it? After the verdict, the jury foreman, Mr. Rodriguez, foolishly agreed to jump into the arena with the lioness. The poor man, like the rest of us, had no idea whether or not Mr. Jackson was actually guilty of the charges. He, as we, had his own opinion, but ours and his suspicions are notproof. We do not guess people into the penitentiary in this country. So watch the snarling Grace take after this man, who had been doing his job as a good citizen. Grace: Yes, Mr. Rodriguez, I understand the theory of reasonable doubt. I was a prosecutor many years. But before I let you go, I've got a question for you. What do youthinkJackson, a forty-year-old man, was doing with these little boys all those nights in bed alone? Rodriguez: Well, that's a personal view that I don't want to talk about right now. . . . We all have our thoughts. [He's saying 'I may have my own idea about this, but I'm limited to the proof the state presented'a position that every lawyer should respect, especially Nancy Grace.] Grace: You tried him for that. You were on the jury. That's what he was accused of. What do youthinkhe was doing? [Again note, the question isn't what did the evidence show. The question is what did the jurorthinkJackson was doing.] Rodriguez: We had to just rely on theI'm not going to stick my neck out there on this. We're justI'm going to base it again on the testimony that was presented to us. . . . [my italics] Grace: What do you mean, stick your neck out? Rodriguez: Well . . . Grace: You don't want to say what youthoughtJackson was doing with those little boys every night? Rodriguez: Because it's our own personal beliefs and our own thoughts, and that's not what we have to work with.We had to work with the testimony of the witnesses and the credibilitySpence, Gerry L. is the author of 'Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power The Rise and Risks of the New Conservative Hate Culture', published 2006 under ISBN 9780312361532 and ISBN 031236153X.