Is Nancy Grace Evil?

palefrost

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I put this is society section because Im concerned about this trend i see in regard to how journalist, for lack of a better term, use news stories to cause sensationalizm or shock journalizm to get attention. Was she out of line here? Can she be held accountable for this womans death? Can her family sue her?


LEESBURG, Fla. Sep 13, 2006 (AP)— Two weeks after telling police that her son had been snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett found herself reeling in an interview with TV's famously prosecutorial Nancy Grace. Before it was over, Grace was pounding her desk and loudly demanding to know: "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"

A day after the taping, Duckett, 21, shot herself to death, deepening the mystery of what happened to the boy.

Police have refused to say whether she left a suicide note, and said nothing they have found so far in their investigation of her death has shed light on the whereabouts of her 2-year-old son, Trenton.

Investigators have stopped short of calling her a suspect but have focused increasing attention on her movements just before the boy vanished and the notes, computer, camera and other items seized from her house.

Duckett's family members disputed any suggestion that she hurt her son. They said that the strain of her son's disappearance pushed her to the brink, and the media sent her over the edge.

"Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end," Duckett's grandfather Bill Eubank said Tuesday. "She wasn't one anyone ever would have thought of to do something like this. She and that baby just loved each other, couldn't get away from each other. She wouldn't hurt a bug."

Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for Grace, said in an e-mail that Duckett's death was "an extremely sad development," but that the program would continue covering the case.

"We feel a responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett, who remains missing," Iamunno said.

Duckett had told police that after she finished watching a movie Aug. 27, she went to check on Trenton in his bedroom, and all she found was an empty crib and a 10-inch cut in the window screen above it. At the time, she was living with her son, wading through a messy divorce with the boy's father and trying to get her life back on track after getting laid off from her job with a lawn care company.

The boy's disappearance in this town of 19,000 people about 45 miles northwest of Orlando stretched the 75-member police force to its limits. Fliers were posted on gas station doors around town, asking for information from anyone who might have seen the boy, a brown-haired youngster wearing denim shorts and a diaper.

Trenton's father, 21-year-old Josh Duckett, was closely questioned after the boy disappeared. Newspapers reported that his wife had taken out a temporary restraining order against him. But Josh Duckett took a polygraph test and has answered all police questions satisfactorily, Capt. Ginny Padgett said.

On Sept. 7, Melinda Duckett gave a telephone interview to CNN Headline News' Grace, a former prosecutor known for practically cross-examining her guests. Duckett stumbled over such questions as whether she had taken a polygraph she said she refused on the advice of her divorce lawyer and where, exactly, she was shopping with the boy before his disappearance.

Hours before the interview aired, Duckett shot herself Friday with her grandfather's gun at her grandparents' house, up the road from where she was living.

Investigators are still trying to piece together a timeline of where she and Trenton were 24 hours before she reported him missing. On Tuesday, they released the make and model of her car, a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse, and asked anyone who might have seen it during that period to call them.

Also on Tuesday, a newspaper reported that she bought a shotgun from a pawn shop two days before Trenton vanished. Padgett said police could not confirm that.

On Monday, agents used dogs and digging equipment to search an outlying area that someone had called about, but found nothing. Investigators continued to field tips.

"We're following up," Padgett said. "Hopefully they'll bring in something to help us firm up the timeline."


On the Net:

FBI missing persons page on Trenton Duckett: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/duckett tj.htm
 
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It certainly is inappropriate to be yelling at her but I don't see how Nancy Grace could be blamed. All Nancy did was ask questions in a hostile manner.
 
I don't think she should be held resposible for her death. I have no clue for sure if the mother was involved in her sons disappearance. But i can honestly say that i would be shouting out where i was and what i did that day, hoping someone would have seen something. I seen the interview and yes she was hard on her, but i will agree with her on one thing. Why wouldn't you say exactly where you were that day. What store? When? Not that she needed to tell Nancy Grace these answers, but from what i've heard on the latest reports she was pretty vague on this same question with the police.
 
I'm not sure about the responbility part as establishing causation here is often a nebulous business. But given the well known public reaction to media, it is reasonable to argue that such methods of journalism should not be condoned. We presume people are accountable to rational functioning far more than we really are, and I do not support the perpetuation of this misconception. As such, I'm of the opinion Nancy ought to change her technique somewhat as it is very possible that Duckett's death was at least in part caused by her and was preventable.
 
The sad thing is so long as the media is obsessed with stories like this and so long as she can get ratings this way nothing is going to change.

I'm not sure about the responbility part as establishing causation here is often a nebulous business. But given the well known public reaction to media, it is reasonable to argue that such methods of journalism should not be condoned. We presume people are accountable to rational functioning far more than we really are, and I do not support the perpetuation of this misconception. As such, I'm of the opinion Nancy ought to change her technique somewhat as it is very possible that Duckett's death was at least in part caused by her and was preventable.
 
This kind of journalism makes me uncomfortable because it seems to me the purpose is shock, rather than news. It doesn't give me any pleasure to see someone squirm and I think investigation is better left to those with the ability to do something with the facts they uncover. Even so, the reporter is responsible for her own behavior but not for the decisions made by the person she interviewed.
 
This kind of journalism makes me uncomfortable because it seems to me the purpose is shock, rather than news. It doesn't give me any pleasure to see someone squirm and I think investigation is better left to those with the ability to do something with the facts they uncover. Even so, the reporter is responsible for her own behavior but not for the decisions made by the person she interviewed.

Totally agree with you and that is what has me worried. I also heard the mother wasn't very stable to begin with. I'm not saying she is innocent but now the investigation could be effected.

I will say this, I dont like Nancy Grace. She reminds me of one of those people that would scream "witch" out during the burning crusades.
 
This is why I don't watch any news on tv besides my local news. I think journalism has become rather seedy as of late to many journalist that will do anything to make a name for themselves, and they make it hard for other journalist who report the facts not sensationalism.
 
You could make a generalisation to all public exposure in general, such as, say, in politics.
 
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The very things that make Nancy Grace a great attorney are the things that make a lot of people hate her show. We should never consider her a journalist. I watch the show on occassion because she often has people involved in the story that you don't see elsewhere so, you can get information for the horse's mouth---insert horse's ass joke here.
 
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