The FOX and the good-looking hound

Oh, Jennifer Wilbanks; you need to be introduced to Bob Eubanks. Your “Newlywed Game” left a lot to be desired … except if you were a cable news network executive. Then little Jennifer was a dream come true.
I must admit that I have more than a tinge of forgiveness and plenty of sympathy for this Georgia woman. No one, I repeat, NO ONE, will fully know what pressure she was understand when she decided to take a hike … er, jog, all the way to Vegas, and then Albuquerque. Under normal circumstances, that would make for a NICE honeymoon (two excellent American west cities).
But, oops, we forgot to leave behind a trip itinerary. Or a forwarding address. Or anything.
Into the breach steps people like Fox News Channel with the following exchanges (thanks to Howard Kurtz’ Media Notes column from the Washington Post for this transcription):
Fox’s Bill O’Reilly: “Woman goes out for a jog and boom, she’s gone. Do you think there’s an epidemic going on here?” And: “This young woman – it’s almost like Laci Peterson. She just disappears from a place that’s Mainstream, USA.”
Fox’s Sean Hannity: “I agree with the father-in-law-to-be.”
Geraldo Rivera: “That there’s foul play.”
Hannity: “Yes.”
Rivera: “So do I.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how media hysteria begins, by jumping, like Carl Lewis at the Olympics, to conclusions WELL before anyone has a single fact, or a piece of evidence.
And that is why it is all so heinous, especially FNC, which actively seeks the most sensational stories to either play to the public’s fears or insatiable appetite for blood, guts and violence. It is old-school local TV journalism with “If it bleeds, it leads” mentality.
At Fox, the mantra is probably, “If we can yell, it will sell.”
Little Jennifer Wilbanks, she of the admitted pent-up sexual frustration (look out dude on YOUR wedding night!!!), made a mistake. Hell, Julia Roberts made a movie out of it and no one said “Boo!” Let this poor woman regain her faculties and rebuild her life.
Forget charges, forget jail time (for WHAT?!?). If we jailed everyone who told a fib, or lied to a cop, or on their taxes, there would just you and I left on this earth … and I’m not so sure about you.