Scott peterson Trail

[mrbuck12000]

Maybe this is the wrong forum for this, but could someone please tell me why this damn thing is still in the news? why is it on national news?

thanks,
mr b

[Moobie]

You think that's bad? I saw this at BlockBuster the other day and almost got sick.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0385940/

The trials not even over yet and they've already got a movie out. And the worst part is they got Superman to play Scott. Ugh...

[mrbuck12000]

why why why......its bad enuf we get inundated with the KOBE crap...but why this. is the media so hard up for news?
mr b

[roachboy]

you know, i dont watch television much at all--hate it, particularly as a news source--but isee it on occaision, and most of those unfortunate encounters with tv news (the worst...the worst source for information out there) contains some mention of this---why is it interesting?

i assume that someone out there has actually been watching---what is the big deal?
is its presence in news programming explained by the fact that for a network that runs infotainment 24/7---like cnn or faux news-----,24/7 can be a huge amount of time--a desert---and filling it a real problem?
if that explains why the peterson trial is interesting, then espn manages the problem better--they show timbersports---maybe the peterson trial is the equivalent of championship poker, fat guys in camo being driven to various wilderness locations so they can blast some creature to smithereens with a large cailber gun, or billiard trick shot competitions?
i really have no idea....

[cthulu23]

The lowest common denominator strikes again!

There is more than enough news produced in the world daily to fill a hundred 24 hour networks. The problem is that a large segment of popular media is designed to be as bland and universally appealing as possible in order to maximize profits. So we get minutes of fashion shows, weather, sports, movies, other entertainment "news" and a 15 second bumper masquerading as an international news segment.

[roachboy]

how does the bbc manage to avoid this whirlpool of fatuousness so neatly? not at every point, mind you--but the news you will hear on the world service usually tells you more in a segment than cnn or faux news will in weeks on the same issue.

more to the point, why do americans accept this kind of idiocy-as-news? why do not more people turn off their televisions and read or listen to more diverse and credible sources of information? if people recognize that the main american tv news sources are compromised not so much by their "politics" as much as by their commercial nature, why dont they just switch off?

[wonderwench]

If you think it's bad in WI, try living in the Bay Area. One cannot turn on the local news without wall-to-wall Peterson trial updates.

I think he did it; but I do believe he will not be convicted.

[roachboy]

you think he did what?
seriously, i have no idea--i keep seeing factoids, but there we are.
i dont follow this kind of stuff--i dont watch local tv news if i can possibly avoid it.

btw, on a related topic, i have wondered for some time if there was a correlation of local tv news and its "if-it-bleeds-it-leads" mode of coverage, particularly of the cities, and the space that limbaugh was able to articulate for a largely suburban middle class male demographic. that the local news functions as a kind of floating data set that the limbaughs of the world purport to explain. this is a serous question, btw--speculations?

[smooth]

The reason it's in the cycle again is that a shitload of information regarding how the prosecution tampered/lied about evidence is coming out.

People are walking around "thinking he did it" without ever seeing any of the evidence, being present in the courtroom, or having personal knowledge of the case based on information (much of it incorrect, we now find out) the prosecution continued to leak to the press early in the process.

This is one of the times the news is doing us a service, unlike when they pumped the speculation all over the airwaves. A bunch of idle speculation and commentary doesn't do much good for protecting the public from overzealous investigators and prosecutors--detailing their tampering and deceit does.

[oktjabr]

Originally posted by smooth

People are walking around "thinking he did it" without ever seeing any of the evidence, being present in the courtroom, or having personal knowledge of the case based on information (much of it incorrect, we now find out) the prosecution continued to leak to the press early in the process.

It seems to be a rather usual phenomenon nowadays - media, always ready to follow the old penny dreadful tradition pouring fuel on the speculations and generate a public verdict before the actual trial even takes place. And if the defendant is proven not guilty, s/he almost has to change his/her identity to continue ordinary life. A good example of this was in Sweden, where they first arrested a wrong guy accused of the murder of minister Anna Lindh and tabloids were screaming with "THE MURDERER?" texts and his photo on the front page.

[matthew330]

"you know, i dont watch television much at all--hate it"

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Rocky week on AMC is almost over.

[brianna]

if you think it's bad in the bay area try living in redwood city .

[SecretMethod70]

Originally posted by smooth
People are walking around "thinking he did it" without ever seeing any of the evidence, being present in the courtroom, or having personal knowledge of the case based on information (much of it incorrect, we now find out) the prosecution continued to leak to the press early in the process.

This is one of the times the news is doing us a service, unlike when they pumped the speculation all over the airwaves. A bunch of idle speculation and commentary doesn't do much good for protecting the public from overzealous investigators and prosecutors--detailing their tampering and deceit does.

This is the thing that gets me the most about this. I firmly believe in the importance of innocent until proven guilty, but the media clearly does not. I think this tenet of our legal system is so important that I'm willing to accept (as were those who created it) that some guilty people would get off in favor of avoiding innocent people being found guilty. It is the backbone of our legal system. However, even when revelations are coming out about tampering in this case and misconduct by the police and such, the reporting is laced with bias against Scott Peterson.

I'll be honest and say I think he's probably guilty, but based on what I've heard (and I don't purport to know what's best, having not been in the courtroom) it seems to me he ought to be found not guilty at this point. Still, the media is content with clinging onto and pointing out everything that could possibly be bad, and even in reporting prosecutorial and police misconduct it is done so in a "damnit, they're going to hurt our chances of getting this guy" manner. The worst is Court TV - I can't stand the woman with the southern accent who reports on the Peterson trial on that station in the first place, and she's particularly bad and biased in this case.

I'd love to not watch the stuff if it didn't make such great background noise. Plus, I think it's important to be in touch with the kind of news most people are getting. It's hard to know how to reach people without understanding how they are being told to see things.

[BigGov]

Originally posted by SecretMethod70
This is the thing that gets me the most about this. I firmly believe in the importance of innocent until proven guilty, but the media clearly does not.

Sadly, most of America only gives that luxury to sports stars and celebrities.

[seretogis]

Originally posted by Jimmy4
Sadly, most of America only gives that luxury to sports stars and celebrities.

You mean like Kobe, R. Kelly, and Michael Jackson?

[SecretMethod70]

Well, R. Kelly and Kobe are being treated properly for the most part, although I honestly don't see a point in treating R. Kelly that way. If the media KNOWS the person is guilty, and R. Kelly was basically caught red-handed, there's no reason to ignore that. Michael Jackson, however, is not getting a fair media trial. Guilty or not, being painted as a freak by every news station (even if it's easy) is not appropriate