Casey Anthony Blood Lust
It’s the story that demands breaking live coverage on not one but two, three cable news networks.
“Another day of powerful testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial,” resounded the anchors on cable news.“Another day of disturbing testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial.”Mainstream media is reporting and analyzing every gory detail.“There were a lot of people upset in court today and that’s because we were hearing testimony about Calee’s limbs,” recounted one reporter. “Her legs being chewed on by animals her trunk torso being dragged off and chewed on.”The American public literally clamoring to hear it all as people get in near brawls lining up for a seat in the courtroom.Ask anyone on the street they can tell you why.“There is something about this case that is mesmerizing and I do think it is because it is a young girl,” said a passerby in Washington DC.“I mean you can speculate that she is a fairly attractive young mother,” speculated another. “Why else this case? It doesn’t involve a famous person.”“It’s like a modern day soap opera,” added one more.And nearly everyone you ask knows who Casey Anthony is.“Someone who murdered her kid, who allegedly murdered her kid in Florida,” said a stranger in Washington DC.And one part of the formula for media coverage and obession this journalism professor says can’t be ignored: Casey Anthony is white.“If it were minorities it would have to be a foot ball player or a politician or something along those lines,” said Chris Chambers, journalism professor at Georgetown University. But does this one criminal trial affect the lives of Americans?“No,” and “probably not,” according to a few people we talked to on the streets. Nonetheless America can’t get enough. According to pollsters at Pew research, last week Casey Anthony was one of the top five newsmakers in mainstream news, after people such as the president of the United States and Republican John Huntsman, who made it official that he’s running for president himself. And the viewers seem to want her to be. Headline News, which has been delivering wall to wall coverage has seen a huge boost in ratings as a result. Media watchdogs report coverage has been sending prime-time ratings surging to first and second place spots on many a day over the last several weeks. Meanwhile, men like Michael Austin arrested in 1974 for a murder and armed robbery he didn’t commit, will never get a fraction of the attention. An injustice that most people will never have heard of. He was exonerated after a difficult battle and serving 27 years in prison, despite plenty of evidence of innocence including an alibi (proof he was working), and a description that pegged the 6’5” black man as a light skinned man of 5’8.”It’s just one of many cases Americans may never hear about, as they tune into “another day of disturbing testimony in the Casey Anthony murder trial,” on the airwaves.That attention whether it matters to greater society or not.
