While the Pilgrim Was Wandering...

A media frenzy in the US has broken over an arrest in JonBenet Ramsey case.

This is not a case/issue that I'm going to keep up with here in the blog. Just a couple of thoughts:
1. Let's remember, the media convicted her parents 10 years ago, so a healthy dose of suspicion would be wise regarding the media coverage now.
2. While this is a tragic case, the fact that it has taken the very tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the continued violence in Iraq out of the front pages/top stories- and in some cases out of the broadcast entirely- is a very bad sign.

I guess both of these thoughts are critical of the media.

Earlier this summer I read a book called The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. It's a novel set around the mysterious death of Edgar Allen Poe, and an effort by the novel's characters to solve the mystery. Poe himself is often credited with having written the first detective stories. I was inspired by Pearl's book to go back and read some of Poe's detective stories (C.S.I in the 19th Century). In a story entitled The Mystery of Marie Roget, Poe has his detective C. Auguste Lupin say the following:

We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation- to make a point- than to further the cause of truth. The latter end is only pursued when it seems coincident with the former.

Poe spoke a truth in 1842 that seems as if he spoke it this morning.

GP