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| Valerie Danner, Managing Editor |
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JonBenet, Go Away
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It is hard to imagine anything worse than losing a child. It is even more unimaginable when the child is taken under sudden, brutal circumstances. And yet, unfortunately, hundreds of parents have to endure these tragic circumstances every year. Though such things happen all too often, it is rare that they become national news stories that engage the public and the media day after day, month after month even when there isn’t a darn thing developing in the story.
But back in December of 1997, when 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey’s body was discovered sexually assaulted and strangled in her Colorado home, the unsolved murder mystery made national headlines. And now, two years and two months later, it is the story that refuses to go away.
The fact is, JonBenet was but a young, overexploited child who lived a brief, childhood-less life. She was only six when she died, but in beauty queen years, she appeared to be 24. She paraded around in cowboy boots with big curly blonde hair, and caked on make-up that more resembled the face of a prostitute, rather than a first grader’s. These photos are what made this murder a national phenomenon. It wasn’t hard to envision all the pedophiles of the world swooning over the sexually charged images of JonBenet and the thousands of other girls like her who are thrust into the role of little miss beauty queen.
You know that a story has been sensationalized when the networks start making movies of the week, and hundreds upon hundreds of books have been written, many of which have become bestsellers.
So I guess it shouldn’t surprise me when I saw a preview for FOX’s version of the JonBenet saga, which was to air last week. Yep, I guess I was naïve to think that this wouldn’t be made into a TV movie of the week, but there was the advertisement appearing before the millions of “Ally McBeal” viewers. Even more appalling was finding out that CBS actually has a two part miniseries (that’s four hours!) devoted to the child’s life/death.
A 30-second commercial that will air during CBS’s series is reportedly costing $175,000 a pop. Not surprisingly, however, is that all of this TV trash is slated to air in February, just one of the networks, sweeps months, when high ratings are translated into a big cha-ching for the stations. But so goes the way of our infotainment culture.
The February issue of the media magazine Brill’s Content isn’t much better. In fact, they devoted 12 pages trying to explain the fascination and the coverage of the Ramsey case, never mind the hypocrisy of it all—I mean come on, they put JonBenet’s mug on the cover. Not too bad for a story that wasn’t even really a national story at all.
One of the creepiest elements of the whole TV movie of the week thing is the young girl that stars in the CBS flick; it’s like JonBenet back from the dead. The unknown actress could easily pass for JonBenet’s twin with her long blonde locks and innocent, yet grown up smile. According to the article in Brill’s, a dummy was used for the CBS “drama” when it came time to shoot the shots of the little girl’s lifeless body. Apparently, it’s not too creepy to have your child play a slain 6-year-old sexually assaulted strangled girl, but it is a too traumatic to have her actually lie there dead. Oye. I can’t imagine someone having played that part, who has the misfortune of being a spitting image of the pageant princess not experiencing some torment over the whole thing. But I suppose Mom and Dad simply see $$$, not the after effects of the whole sha-bang.
Of course sordid tales like the JonBenet Jamboree are fueled by a hungry media digging around for the next O.J. Reporters have practically been put on the JonBenet beat, and “journalists” such as Larry King and good old Geraldo relish stories such as these.
Perhaps what is saddest about the whole JonBenet murder is that when it’s reduced to it’s simplest element, a murder took place. A young child was viciously killed in her own home and her last moments of life were marked by the worst kind of invasive violence.
Her murder hasn’t been solved and probably never will be. Whoever did this, whether it’s her parents, an intruder or someone driving a white Bronco, he’s still out there, probably laughing because he knows that he’ll never be caught because the investigation has been so botched and the public so tainted by all the press the crime has generated these past two years. It’s a real tragedy when people have become more interested in JonBenet the marketable, rather than JonBenet, the murdered. |
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