Lose The Dead Weight, CNN
It pretty common among bloggers to offer their criticisms as faux advice, such as “Dear Mr. President, do yourself a favor and stop being a moron.” Pretending to show concern is a good trick, since it’s an easy way to rewrite the same complaints without boring yourself or your audience. I bring this up just to make it clear that this post should not be interpreted in that way. I know there are people from CNN who read this blog and I sincerely hope they take the following message to heart.
Nancy Grace is a irrational lunatic whose obsession with revenge undermines any credibility she may have once had. Please fire her.
Reliable “legal experts” don’t foam at the mouth when a lack of physical evidence keeps a suspect from being charged with a crime. In comparison to CNN’s legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, Grace’s show offers analysis akin to a torch-wielding leader of a lynch mob. Evidence, due process, and rule of law are moot on Grace’s show since the goal is never to discuss the legal process, but to seek vengeance against all criminals, regardless of their guilt.
What makes Grace’s show especially heinous is that her shtick panders to the most ignorant and emotionally charged impulses in her audience. The rage in her voice is palpable as she interviews anyone with gall to defend someone charged with a crime. Indeed, even guests who play the devil’s advocate are treated with derision as if discussion of the simple fact that our legal system provides the assumption of innocence is a sign that they lack her moral clarity. In Nancy Grace’s world, being charged with a crime is a guilty sentence.
There are some who might argue that Grace’s program exists to provoke discussion and that my reaction is proof that she “must be doing something right”. Well, if CNN’s goal is to move away from news gathering and analysis and turn their airwaves into a intellectually-stunted spectacle, then mission accomplished. But I’d like to give CNN the benefit of the doubt and not jump to the conclusion that they’d willingly throw away their reputation to a prurient thrill for the short-term gain of some advertiser revenue. Despite my frequent complaints about CNN, I still think they’re the best of the big three cable news networks.
So please, CNN, get rid of Nancy Grace. Your affiliation with her cheapens your entire network.
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I was curious what her attitude was on the
John Mark Karr fiasco. Did she rush to judgement or hold off until they did the DNA testing?
Comment by jimmarquis — September 3, 2006 @ 4:48 pm
No, she rushed in like a reactionary idiot, and all but called him guilty.
Greg – the problem, in part, is that the neo-fascists on the reich-wing have now had about ten years of serious media influence/ownership — and the ONLY thing they care about is money. Part of the reason the reich-wing machine is falling apart? They’ve sold their kind of short-term, faux-pious (read:prurient interest), lies-as-news (read: Faux “News”) to just about ALL the terminally stupid morons they can — and after repeating too many lies for too long, people are beginning to say, “Hmmmm…. they may not be telling us the WHOLE truth…”
Unfortunately, many of the stupid horse-brained morons also have trouble admitting that folks in the “reality based community” were right because – in part, since the morons believed the lies of the reich-wing for so long, and supported everything they did, to admit their belief and support of those lies also means the horse-brained masses were complicit in the unnecessary deaths of all those soldiers and civilians halfway around the world. So they keep watching Faux “News” – and the type of trash stands for programing on that channel looks, often, amazingly like “Nancy Grace.”
I keep saying the same thing – let’s ignore her, and ignore them, until they crawl right back under the rocks from which they came. Her ratings will fall, and those who worship $ will dispose of here like the trash she is.
Of course, since the nutjobs came out from under their rocks, once we get them back under their rocks, it might be a good idea to blow up the rocks – for good measure – and bury anything else that remains.
It’s not that I’m violent. I’m just sick to death of the reich-wing. I want my country back, my media back, and my world back, thank you. And if their kind insists the only way the rest of us are going to take things back to Clinton-era common sense (so we can move forward as we SHOULD have) is to do it over their dead bodies, then I say, “Let’s give ‘em their wish!”
It’s just being hospitable, after all. ;-D
Comment by Silversmith — September 3, 2006 @ 7:54 pm
I’ve never watched her, but if they could tie her and Glenn Beck in a sack and drop it off of Chelsea Piers into the sea, that would be a fun day.
Comment by tommytimp — September 3, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
Happy 1st Anniversary Greg and Kristen.
Comment by Mom — September 4, 2006 @ 10:03 am
Amen to that, tommytimp. Anyway we can shut up Glenn Beck is fine with me.
Greg- I don’t really know you but happy anniversary!
Comment by jim marquis — September 4, 2006 @ 10:35 am
It took all of 30 seconds for me to become tired of Nancy but the new record has been set by Glen Beck. I thought he was selling one of those Popeil rotisseries. It was instantaneous hate. I have not been able to watch for more than a 12 second stretch and that when I couldn’t locate the remote. Senor el puke-o
Comment by Teroodle — September 4, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
I’ve never watched her show, but when she was a guest on Colbert, I was amazed that someone so overwrought and unconcerned with legal process could hold a job as a prosecutor. (Call me naive.)
But what really blew me away was when Colbert asked her what the biggest problem facing the justice system is, and her reply, quite serious, was “All these celebrity defendents getting off!”
My god, that accounts for five people a decade! What moron would be so obsessed with celebrity trials that she finds it more repugnant than anything else in the other 99.9999999999999999% of our legal system?
After hearing that, I’m completely mystified as to why anyone listens to this unhinged loon about anything.
Comment by Royko — September 5, 2006 @ 1:04 am
Unfortunately, I think you answered your own question. Being an unhinged loon is what sells these days.
Comment by jim marquis — September 6, 2006 @ 10:04 pm