I refused to watch a single moment of the Casey Anthony trial. I refused to watch a single news story about the trial. This took some doing and I had to replace the battery in my television clicker sooner than anticipated. The story was ubiquitous.<\/p>\n
I refused to engage it for the same reason I would have refused to attend a gladiator fight had I lived two thousand years ago. In America today, the courtroom has replaced the ampitheater, but the lust for gruesomeness is the same. Shame on us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
To those of you \u2014 and I know you\u2019re out there \u2014 who are planning to show up at his place with pliers and a blow torch, and try to make him watch, all I can say is, lots of luck.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never had any patience for media personalities who complain about the media. No matter how much any of us moralizes about the 24-hour news cycle, the fact is, we all play along \u2014 some more willingly, some less so. And we all benefit \u2014 again, on a sliding scale. More viewers for Fox means more clicks for me, and even for Michael Sean Winters. A hater\u2019s click counts the same as a fan\u2019s, after all. <\/p>\n
But much more basically, pretending there\u2019s no good at all in the dissemination of news is just\u2026mindless. Yes, coverage of sensitive subjects can leave a lot to be desired \u2014 thoughtful angles get overlooked, good taste is routinely violated. But still, the final takeaway is left to the consumer. Dopey people will come away thinking dopey thoughts, but intelligent people will find an intelligent takeaway \u2014 and there\u2019s always one to be found. <\/p>\n
As an object lesson in how tabloid journalism can make a positive difference in spite of itself, consider the case of St. Maria Goretti, whose feast day was yesterday. With the possible exception of Josemaria Escriva, she\u2019s the Church\u2019s most controversial saint \u2014 quite a feather for a laconic 12-year-old to wear in her cap. It\u2019s tempting to blame \u2014 or credit \u2014 her hagiographers, who have steeped her story in such thick schmaltz that it reads like a Kenny Rogers ballad set to a tarantella. But really, the poor hacks are only following the example set by the first responders \u2014 the Italian police reporters of the nineteen-oughts. <\/p>\n
Italian newspapers have never been famous for their subtlety. The worst of them \u2014 the equivalents of the Murdoch rags \u2014 feature a section called the cronica nera,<\/i> or black chronicle. It\u2019s basically a clearing house for the pulpiest news around, the place where the public first met Toto Riina and Amanda Knox, and the victims of any number of gruesome Vespa mishaps. This is where news of Maria Goretti\u2019s murder first turned up, and the tone would have made Westbrook Pegler blush. In one early story, the killer is described as a \u201chuman beast\u201d and a \u201cfilthy satyr\u201d \u2014 and that\u2019s just in one paragraph. <\/p>\n
Doubtless, much of the initial interest was strictly prurient. \u201cI hope they hang the testa di minghia,<\/i> and I hope I get to watch!\u201d would have been among the more delicately nuanced reactions. But then the oddest thing happened: people stayed interested. Many of those who were simply enjoying a grisly story started proclaiming the sanctity of the victim. <\/p>\n
Of course, it would be na\u00efve to pretend that this, too, is anything but par for the course. The press beatifies crime and disaster victims on a regular basis. It\u2019s good for business, particularly when the victim is female, and when the crime or disaster carries sexual overtones. In Black Dahlia,<\/i> James Ellroy has one detective advise another to keep a lid on a murder victim\u2019s wanton past. Depicting the dead girl as innocent will sell more papers \u2014 and win more publicity for the DA. <\/p>\n
But this kind of canonization tends to expire around the time the jury convicts the bad guy. By our standards, the conviction of Goretti\u2019s killer was an express-lane job; a little over three months after the murder, he was packed off to an fittingly hellish prison in Sicily. Still, interest in the victim persisted \u2014 in fact, grew. Two whole years after her death, the tabloid Il Messagero<\/i> paid to have Goretti\u2019s body moved from a pauper\u2019s grave to a marble tomb. It was the publishers\u2019 way of saying thanks, and if it was in any way proportional to the favor bestowed, the favor must have been enormous. Marble doesn\u2019t grow on trees \u2014 not even in Italy. <\/p>\n
It should have faded away like any other boy-shivs-girl story. The murder rate in early 20th-century Italy was horrific. Despite \u2014 or perhaps because of \u2014 the absence of any organized criminal brotherhood, like the Camorra or \u2018Ndrangheta, the Agro Pontino, where the principal players had lived, was particularly violent. Sadly, attempted rapes weren\u2019t big news, either. The place couldn\u2019t be mistaken for Versailles; among the lesser sort, \u201cI like you; come to bed with me \u2014 or else\u201d was fairly close to standard flirtation. Certainly none of the surviving Gorettis had the savvy to milk the story; in style and temperament, Assunta, the dead girl\u2019s mother, seems to have been a close match for David Sedaris\u2019 grandmother \u2014 not great interview fodder.<\/p>\n
Yet, as Kathleen Norris points out, \u201cthere was something in the child\u2019s recounting of the attack, and in her mother\u2019s grief, that compelled the neighbors, the police, the nurses to keep retelling the story.\u201d And, I would add, to suffer it to be told them by the press. Thirty years after the murder, enough buzz remained that the Passionists were able to reinvigorate public interest in Goretti\u2019s cause for sainthood. When sainthood came, it looked like progress \u2014 a rare tip of the mitre to an extremely poor layperson who never saw an apparition. Today, for reasons I am way too chicken to get into, even speaking the name \u201cMaria Goretti\u201d can spark a debate. I myself might never have heard of her if my mother hadn\u2019t blamed her for ruining her childhood.<\/p>\n
There are nuggets of wisdom \u2014 or, at any rate, fascinating points of contention \u2014 in any trashy news story. When I watched police beating Rodney King for the eleven or twelve thousandth time, it finally dawned on me that, yes, racial bias might still exist in this country. (Laugh if you like; growing up a Manhattan preppie, I thought racism was something Al Sharpton made up.) Cowering in the bubble of my male consciousness, I\u2019d never even heard of post-partum depression before the Andrea Yates case. Thanks to Fox\u2019s coverage of Natalee Holloway, I know never to trust a guy with a name like \u201cJoran.\u201d <\/p>\n
What have I learned from following Casey Anthony\u2019s trial? Off the cuff, I\u2019d take it as a reminder that our country\u2019s legal system was founded on the premise that it\u2019s better for ten guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to hang. Apparently, the rule applies to women, too. That means we\u2019ve got nine more of these things to go. Hang in there, Michael Sean.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A word to the wise: don\u2019t ask NCR\u2019s Michael Sean Winters if he\u2019s been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He\u2019ll probably tell you something along these lines: I refused to watch a single moment of the Casey Anthony trial. I refused to watch a single news story about the trial. This took some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,50,159,208],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-casey-anthony","tag-caylee-anthony","tag-media","tag-saints"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-07T18:32:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T21:04:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Max Lindenman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Max Lindenman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/\",\"name\":\"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-07T18:32:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T21:04:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355\"},\"description\":\"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic\",\"description\":\"A Hedonist Contemplates Heaven\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355\",\"name\":\"Max Lindenman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Max Lindenman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/author\/maxlindenman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties","description":"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties","og_description":"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/","og_site_name":"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic","article_published_time":"2011-07-07T18:32:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T21:04:43+00:00","author":"Max Lindenman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Max Lindenman","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/","name":"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-07-07T18:32:29+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T21:04:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355"},"description":"A word to the wise: don't ask NCR's Michael Sean Winters if he's been keeping up with the Casey Anthony case. He'll probably tell you something along","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/2011\/07\/the-patron-saint-of-celebrity-crime-casualties\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Patron Saint of Celebrity Crime Casualties"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/","name":"Diary of a Wimpy Catholic","description":"A Hedonist Contemplates Heaven","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/f28642d6ff756d058ed6ff35f876e355","name":"Max Lindenman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2823340b259acd6c04cbc8d94213ca58?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Max Lindenman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/author\/maxlindenman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/diaryofawimpycatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}