The Vulture and the Dog

         For three years the talking heads on Headline News have prosecuted Casey Anthony in the court of public opinion. When they occasionally had a guest who might be fair minded enough to suggest that a person in the United States is innocent until proven guilty, the host would attack their motives, ideas and sometimes their experience with scorn, sarcasm and bile before turning to someone with an opinion which more closely matched their own ideas. Now, with a Not Guilty verdict in, these HLN scavengers, robbed of seeing Casey Anthony put to death, are now turning their attention to the jury, suggesting that the jury “may” have been influenced to vote not guilty because a controversial verdict is worth more in book and movie deals.

         I watched the coverage, hoping to see justice for Caylee Anthony, but alas, that never came.

         First among them is the Vulture Queen Nancy Grace, a woman who has never seen anyone arrested who wasn’t guilty and deserving of the maximum penalty under the law (and then some). I know her history, and for the loss she suffered, I am truly sympathetic and sad. That does not excuse her vitriolic and blind prosecution of any defendant unlucky enough to come under her scrutiny after being charged with a crime by the legal system. She makes up pet names for those in her sights, derogatory and belittling names she throws around with a sarcastic affect at every opportunity. Nancy Grace may have been a good prosecutor and perhaps should have kept at that instead of becoming a monster and bully who uses her bully pulpit to excoriate, berate and prosecute any hapless soul unlucky enough to have that vulture’s gaze fall upon them while they go through the legal system. Either she has a very bad plastic surgeon or some karmic force is actually changing her appearance to fit the image of a vulture she has built for herself.

         HLN Princess and wannabe queen is JVM. Jane Velez Mitchell is fond of saying the media is just the messenger and that the public should stop attacking the messenger, but their so called message is always driven toward the guilt of the defendant along with any salacious, embarrassing or dirty bit of laundry they can dig up on the defendant, the defendant’s family, friends or anyone else in the least way connected to the case. This includes the lawyers, judges, jurors, spectators and victims. JVM is just another tabloid reporter who thinks nothing of “chasing them down” when trying to poke her microphone and camera in the face of anyone she sets her sights on, despite their wish for privacy and civility. JVM is more a scavenger dog than a vulture, feasting on the same meal but more willing to jump in and wallow in the mud.

         As if their obvious bias and lack of integrity are not bad enough, you have only to analyze the cases they choose to cover like this to find yet another nasty side to these two talking heads. In each and every case there is a pretty white girl as victim or defendant. Thousands of men, women and children are murdered across our country every year, but if you watch HLN you would think all crime revolved around pretty white women.

         Once they have a case in their sights with the obligatory pretty white woman they parade an endless stream of lawyers, psychologists, pathologists and other professionals who are willing to come on the air to prove what a vile, weak and immoral creature the defendant is. These two scavengers and some of their colleagues take to the cable news air with no thought of justice, truth or respect for our judicial system. Instead they circle, spewing vitriol and opinion mixed with contempt and scorn. They propose to champion cameras in the courts, but they embody only the negative side of that issue even as they extol the virtues of open proceedings. In the Casey Anthony case they have vigorously prosecuted the defendant for three years in the court of public opinion. These two despicable women along with a few of their colleagues and most of their guests have direct responsibility for the results which include a public screaming for blood despite a not guilty verdict by the actual real jury. Of course they all try to cover their culpability with self-serving statements about how they respect the jury verdict and the judicial system, even as they attack, accuse and malign those same jurors.

         If anyone does attack these jurors or the defendant and cause harm or death, a good deal of that blood will without doubt be on the hands and faces of Nancy and Jane.

         If there are to be any lessons learned from the HLN coverage of this case it is that people like Nancy and Jane should be taken off the air or relegated to covering much less serious things.

         There are many actual journalists on HLN, some of whom maintained professionalism through this case and I do not want to paint them with the same brush as I do their Queen Nancy and Princess Jane.

         I did not offer my opinion on the verdict or the guilt or innocence of the defendent as I do not feel that my opinion on that has any bearing as I was not a victim or a juror.