I wish I could take credit for the title of this piece, but it is a direct quotation from a column written by Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez. Lopez decries the shameless television and media pandering to a public by a cynical television industry exploiting the darker side of humankind. It seems there is no limit to the depths to which the industry is willing to descend in order to gain Nielson shares. To this indictment of the television industry, I think we can add an acknowledgement of the press and radio talk show jocks that also spawn the public’s feeding frenzy.
We have become so desensitized to violence and outrageous cruelty to man, that the media has to constantly crank up the amplitude for the next “case of the century.” The “case of the century,” being a convenient fiction created solely for the benefit of an avaricious and self-important media-media that hunger for Nielson shares, the way the homeless hunger for bread or a night’s rest.
This is the place where I confess to complicity, for I was part of the O.J. “commentariat” who, I am sure, added nothing to the betterment of human understanding other than an occasional insight into our justice system. I am older now, and hopefully wiser. And I see it differently. It was always about “entertainment.” If an occasional epiphany about American justice was revealed, I am sure it was unintended, as the first order of business was to heighten the drama and the emotions of the moment. That sells. That is a fact.
When I was growing up, I learned of extraordinary trials in history such as the Inquisition of Joan of Arc (religious heresy), the Crown v. Sir Thomas More (refusal to take an oath of allegiance to the King), the Salem Witch trials (witchcraft and devil worship), the Andersonville trials (treatment of prisoners of war-just following orders), Alfred Dreyfus (anti-Semitism and treason), Sacco and Vanzetti (alien radicals), the Monkey trial (evolution), the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg trial (treason/atomic secrets), Nuremberg (Nazi atrocities and genocide-just following a superior’s orders). And, of course, we all learned about the trials of Socrates (corruption of youth and failure to acknowledge the official gods) and Galileo Galilei (ecclesiastical condemnation of the Copernican theory of the earth rotating around the Sun, rather than the church view that the earth was the center of the universe).
And I know you can name your own historical favorites that impacted your life in a profound way. Maybe it was Brown versus Board of Education (separate but equal denies equal protection). However, I suspect that Scott Peterson, O.J. Simpson or the upcoming trials of Robert Blake and Michael Jackson are not on your list. Though, in retrospect, perhaps the arguably duplicitous prosecution of Martha Stewart-given the nice people who brought us Enron, World-Com and bogus dot-coms, who escaped prosecution-might serve as an imploding moral benchmark for these times.
I don’t know if the trials and tribulations of others, especially celebrities and the powerful, serve as the ultimate reality show for a bored and “have everything, done everything” society. I do know that it (they) … don’t amount to a “hill of beans,” to steal a quote from Casablanca’s Rick Blaine.
Having said that, and while sitting in traffic on Pacific Coast Highway, I guess I’ll tune in to John and Ken and find out about the next “trial of the century.” After all, I am sure the media, understanding the serious competition from the makers of Playstation II that informs our view of violence and self-absorbed gratification, will give us even more instant gratification owing to their increasingly creative trial coverage. So, if you will, maestro, bring on Robert Blake!