BY STEVE SAFRAN
MANAGING EDITOR
LOST REMOTE
It’s too easy to blame Nancy Grace for the suicide of Melinda Duckett. Nancy didn’t kill her. But Ms. Duckett’s death was an assisted suicide, and although Nancy will not own up to it, her aggressive, irresponsible grilling of a clearly unstable woman played a role in this sickening drama. The death of a guest on a news talk show was inevitable, just as surely as it happened on “Jenny Jones” before. I hope CNN will take this opportunity to examine “The Nancy Grace Show” and its role in journalism. It could be something it is not: a thoughtful examination of meaningful legal issues. Instead, a woman is dead, her missing child still missing, and the media takes another hit for ruining a life in the name of ratings.
There is a delusion on Nancy’s show that the ends justify the means. Melinda Duckett was not prepared for what lay ahead. She got a world-class cross examination without the benefit of counsel. She was jumped. It’s true, she knew she was going on TV. But how many people in the midst of a crime – whether they perpetrated it or not – are in their right mind for a grilling on international television? Melinda Duckett didn’t kill herself because of that interview. But surely it was, if not the last straw, a straw high on the haystack.
Nancy protests that “Melinda committed suicide before that interview ever aired. It had never gone to air.” A straw man argument if ever there was one. Melinda killed herself just hours before the show aired on Friday, September 8th. She knew it was coming, and she knew she was about to look like a fool in front of a worldwide audience. For anyone, that’s a lot to handle.
I can hear the Nancy supporters cry now: “Melinda did it! She obviously killed the son! She was in the middle of a messy divorce and didn’t sound truthful!” I have no sympathy for child killers. None. But it doesn’t matter. Any lawyer will advise you against doing or saying anything that could give a whiff of self-incrimination. Look at the ceaseless attacks on the Ramseys. And even if “Melinda did it,” that’s for a court to determine, and not TV news. Nancy Grace considers herself the judge and the jury. She brings on psychiatrists and “experts” to back up her opinion. Where were Melinda’s experts for the defense?
The irresponsible use of her pulpit is staggering. Nancy’s obsession with “Did you take a polygraph? Why won’t you take a polygraph?” is a populist absurdity. A polygraph test is banned in some jurisdictions, is only admissible at the discretion of the judge in others, and has long been proven to be unreliable especially in times of stress. It is only definitive in Nancy’s kangaroo court.
The devotion of prime time space to the search for missing children is admirable. I love that CNN has dedicated time to that. But I also have a suspicion the motives are not wholly selfless. If Nancy’s show were not a ratings-grabber, the dedication to missing children would move on. If my child were missing, I would do everything I could to get a second of air time on any outlet that would have me. I just wouldn’t go on with Nancy Grace.
On Monday, September 11th, she gave most of her show to the Duckett case again. Did Nancy do the right thing by saying “We feel terrible about what happened, and we send our sympathy to the Duckett family at this time of still another tragedy”? Nope. About midway through she begged off any responsibility for Melinda Duckett’s death: “I do not feel that our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett. The truth.. is not always nice or polite or easy to go down. Sometimes it`s harsh, and it hurts.”
The truth is that this show could be a great forum for discussing the legal ideas of the day. Instead it is a tabloid show that disguises its mission in self-righteousness.