Crucify! Says the Public
Media
Opinion Editorial by Mary Katherine May
The Roman Coliseum in America as a Means of Justice
Who are the latest to be
taken down by the public media venues? Television cable stations, internet
sites, print publications and radio seem to delight in publicly dissecting and
ruining the Celebrity of the Day, leaving no pebble unturned in their quest.
Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, the
cable news programs I surf through, claim to give you the heart of current
events in a fair and balanced manner when we know the truth is that what we
hear has far more opinion than fact.
Do viewers get a false sense of
reality of what people are about because of what they hear, as Mr. Obama
claims? In my opinion the answer is no. Viewers watch the news stations that
best suit what they believe to be true, or appear to hold their same values,
wanting to hear about current events from the perspective they already hold.
Across the board of all venues,
however, there is a multi-partisan attitude to include the public crucifixion,
maybe thinking it in the genre social interest, in the daily line up of reported
current events. It is never ending. Once one scandalous person has finally been
laid to rest, the next victim’s sins begin to be aired and hung out to have
their skin beaten off like an old dirty rug.
There is little talk of
compassion or interest in rehabilitation and certainly no interest in justice
even though indignation is claimed. The amount of time given to the victim’s
sin tells the viewers that it must be far worse than any other, as though all
who enter the ring of terror to add their timely wisdom were sinless.
I am reminded of a piranha
feeding frenzy, of Job in the Old Testament being criticized by his three
friends, of Jesus Christ being mocked on the cross, of Christians being thrown
into the center of the Roman Coliseum and torn apart by lions while people
yelled and cheered over the bloody body parts.
And after the party is over,
then what? Where do the victims go? How do they rebuild their lives, learn from
their mistakes, get help and move on? Where is the future for them and their
families?
I wonder who the greatest
sinners are in this mutilation of human life: the victims or the
self-proclaimed judge and jury of the people, fueled by continuous flaming of
the fire by the reports perpetrated by those who decide what is newsworthy?
