Nancy Grace Brings Mob Justice to CNN...

I'm really glad that to find out that I wasn't the only one who see Nancy Grace for what she really is.

All I can say is, thank God she's not still working (officially) the state's side of the courtroom. At the recent Edgar Ray Killen, all she could focus on was the fact that the South came off looking like racsist, ignorant rednecks-- No simpathy or empathy spared for the three murdered men, their families or the fact that they had to wait 41 years for a small measure of justice.

Just like Curious George, she's another one who likes nothing better than to wipe her ass on the Bill of Rights...

--ryan

Guilty or not, here she comes -- Nancy Grace Brings Mob Justice to CNN

By Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle

"How many boys claim or witnesses claim they saw Jackson's hands down some kid's pants? ...
A number. A number. Can anybody give me a number?"
-- Nancy Grace.

With all the porn, pajamas and Culkin-related distractions in the Michael Jackson case, it's easy to forget that his criminal trial is similar to thousands of others conducted every year. There were opening statements, witnesses for the prosecution and defense -- and after a few more weeks of testimony, a jury will weigh the evidence and let the world know if the singer committed the crime.

Unless you're one of more than 500,000 viewers each night watching CNN Headline News, where Nancy Grace talks as though she determined the celebrity's guilt a long time ago.

Since CNN earlier this year positioned "Nancy Grace" as the centerpiece of the Headline prime lineup, the channel has enjoyed a short-term ratings bonanza. But if executives in charge of the once-respected cable news station are getting a good night's rest, then they haven't been watching her bizarre coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a dozen other sensational cases.

If one looks at every page of every transcript since "Nancy Grace" debuted three months ago, the program more closely resembles a torch-bearing mob than the "legal issues" show that CNN promised. Grace has created her own parallel universe in which guests are berated for advocating due process, panelists are invited back frequently if they make ad hominem attacks and suspects are seemingly guilty until proven innocent.

"I just wonder," Grace said on her April 7 program about Jackson, "how much money and how much celebrity does it take to make people totally ignore what's under their nose?"

"Talk about garbage and luggage in your past," she added a minute later. "There's Michael Jackson getting his star on the Walk of Fame. If I'm incorrect, correct me. But isn't that where he took his chimp as a date?"

Just a few months ago, Grace was an outsider looking in. She rose to fame as a painfully shrill yet mercifully small player in the Scott Peterson trial media circus, frequently contributing to "Larry King Live."
Grace's delivery was problematic during the Peterson trial, although for completely different reasons. She would repeatedly phrase her comments as if she had been in the courtroom, even though she was almost always more than 2, 000 miles away. And with no more firsthand knowledge of the courtroom on most days than King's listeners in Bangor, Maine, she seemed willing to convict the fertilizer salesman.

"Well, I think today they're in the best form that they have looked the entire trial," Grace said of the prosecutors, after June 21 court proceedings that she didn't attend. "Today, great day for the prosecution."

CNN executives could have used the end of the Peterson trial as a time to seriously reflect on her presence on a network with a respected history. Instead, they sent out the press release that the real journalists in the building must have been dreading.

"There is no one more knowledgeable and passionate about legal issues than Nancy," CNN News Group executive vice president Ken Jautz said at the beginning of the year, announcing that Grace would get her own hour-long program starting February 21. "Whether you agree or disagree with her, you'll want to watch her."

There can be no argument with the second half of Jautz's statement. In Grace's first full month in prime time, as she focused on the Robert Blake and Michael Jackson trials, Headline News vaulted past MSNBC as the third most- watched cable news network behind Fox News Channel and CNN. Grace averaged more than half a million viewers during that period, and several journalists at big newspapers wrote about what a big success it was.

But public stonings used to be popular, and they don't belong on CNN either. From the beginning, Grace has run her show like she's the most popular girl on the junior high playground, often picking on the least affluent or weirdest-looking subjects in the news cycle.
When reading Nancy Grace transcripts, keeping an eye out for improprieties, a color-coding system becomes a necessity.

Blue Post-It notes are good when the prosecutor-turned-legal-pundit makes an error or a wild exaggeration. Yellow can be used for each of Grace's gratuitously blunt questions for people whose loved ones have been killed. ("Tony, does your little girl have any recollection of the murder of her mom? Clearly she was there," she said on an April 15 show, probing the father of a young girl whose mother was killed. "The facts surrounding the discovery of the body were horrific, with your little girl clutching her mom's dead body.") And a separate color -- maybe salmon? -- is helpful every time she uses farm animal adages as a rush to judge someone yet to be convicted of any crime.

"You can't put perfume on a pig! ... If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck! ... When you don't know a horse, look at his track record!"

At the three-month mark, the Nancy Grace show is already strangely skewed from the real world. Guests who advocate a wait-and-see attitude toward suspects are used as punching bags. Guests who bring a scary amount of anger are praised, often becoming regulars.
"I think the common theme of this show tonight, Nancy, is very clear," victims' advocate Marc Klaas said during one of 14 appearances he's made on her show. "There are people on this earth who should never be allowed to give birth."

"Marc Klaas, stinging indictment," Grace responded. "But you know what? I think a lot of people share your sentiment. But you have the guts to say it, friend."

Grace's mob-mentality panel discussions aren't illegal, or even especially unique. In picking Grace's show as the prime time centerpiece for Headline News, they're using the same hateful-language-attracts-viewers template that Bill O'Reilly has used to win the time period. But Grace's rants are even more dangerous, because they turn the simplest principles of our judicial system upside down.

On an April 14 show, Grace moderated a short panel discussion about the prospects of the death penalty for a Florida man connected to a missing girl, even though authorities at that time declined to even name him as a suspect in the case.

It's only a matter of time before her decision to choose heroes and villains before the story has unfolded ends badly, the way it did for journalists who piled on exonerated Olympic bombing suspect Richard Jewell. Grace cast the missing Jennifer Wilbanks as a sympathetic figure, and look how that blew up in her face.

"Well, look, I don't have a degree in being a police chief. But I can tell you this much: This is not cold feet, all right?" Grace said on April 28, less than 24 hours before the bride-to-be proved her wrong. "This is not cold feet. I know that much."

E-mail Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle