People Features
Author Stephen King on Nancy Grace: “the belle of the Freakers ball”
By April MacIntyre Oct 8, 2006, 21:34 GMT
Nancy Grace © Janet Mayer / Photorazzi
There is a great op-ed in the latest Entertainment Weekly written by horror raconteur and American gothic spiel meister, my fellow New Englander, Stephen King.
King is upset with Georgia legal pit-bull, CNN's Nancy Grace. His complaints stem from her unbridled use of the bully television pulpit that damns anyone silly enough to get caught in her cross-hairs.
The subject setting him off involved missing 2 year old Trenton Duckett and his mother, the now deceased Melinda Duckett. Melinda crawled into a closet with a shotgun and blew her head clean off the day after Grace had cross examined her supervision of her missing child.
King fumes in his assessment of the southern legal eagle ratings queen and beneficiary of the now coined media termed dead mother bounce:
King said: "And before you accuse me of writing about news in your favorite entertainment magazine, let me assure you Nancy Grace is entertainment...if, that is, you're the sort who watches NASCAR for the crashes and Survivor hoping no one will. In the increasingly weird world of infotainment, she is the belle of the Freakers Ball...[Grace] conveys by body language alone the idea that we're all guilty of something...and she knows it."
There is a dividing line between real reporting, and sensationalized pap, and pap sadly seems to be winning more viewers than the truth. King further claims the Grace phenomenon that permeates every level of media and reporting is immoral, and too close to his own horrific imagination that spawned his “Running Man” novel about live execution on television.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Wait....so Nancy KNEW she was badgering an emotionally fragile person? Hope that warm fuzzy lasts her long enough to spare the next victim
Why are people after Nancy Grace when it's the child care system that should be sued. Who do they hire, illegal aliens?
To me it's unbelieveable how some people always try to leave the real person that caused the missing of that little boy out.
Oh please. If you don't like Nancy Grace, don't watch her for God sake. Melinda Duckett was a suicide risk way before she refused to answer questions on Nancy Grace. I was appalled the night I watched live and she refused, simply refused to answer simple questions. She walked out on several lie -detector tests and there is 2,000+ pages documenting all sorts of trouble she's had for years. Is she guilty? It looks like it, but who knows. Nancy Grace was doing her job. Melinda, on the other hand was , by so many accounts, verbally abusive, narcissistic,immature, conniving and most likely possessing a borderline personality. Call her the Belle of the Freaker's ball if you want to. But if you were the victim of a crime, it wouldn't hurt a bit to have her as an advocate.
Doing her job? Pushing people over the edge? I thought she was a TV show host. The fact that Ms Duckett attempted suicide before and didn't go threw with it even more blames it on Ms Grace. It appears until she ran into Ms Grace she didn't have the courage to go threw with it. If she was so sure to commit suicide why didn't she do it right after she got rid of her son? Why did she wait over two weeks? Maybe she really wouldn't have gone threw with the deed until she was pushed into by Ms Grace. And yes I think Ms Duckett is responsible for her son's disappearance but Nancy Grace isn't the judge and jury.
People tend to forget that 'Nancy Grace' is a television show. What goes completely unspoken is that Melinda called into the show (she was not in the studio). So this poor little misunderstood, mal-adjusted girl was free to hang up at any point. The poor little girl frequently walked out of police interviews and into the arms of the local media. This is the same fragile little girl who visciously abused her son to get her husband to obey her every command.
I'm finding it impossible to believe that she could withstand police and FBI interviews - held face to face, in government facilities with the possiblity of instant imprisonment; but crumbled like a porcelain doll when mean ol' Nancy Grace asked her what store she went into on that fateful Sunday.
Bottom line - there are thousands of pages of documentation indicating she would hurt Trenton to manipulate Josh. Has it occurred to anyone that after 2 years of putting her momentary desires above Trenton's well-being, she finally decided she didn't want to be a single parent anymore? Has it occurred to anyone that she has more than a 2 year history of cutting herself when she felt less than perfect or out of countrol? Has anyone put 2 and 2 together and realized that with the police hot on her trail (with possession of her computer), evidence of her abuse mounting - that she finally took control of the situation and killed herself, complete with a self-serving 'suicide' letters?
Nancy was just another one of a string of reporters who sat in the audience of Melinda's one-woman show.
How anyone can say that Nancy Grace was the one that made Melinda go over the edge is beyond me!!!!!!! Everyone would be singing her praises if she had been able to get out of Melinda, what the police couldn't, on finding out where little Trenton is.
Melinda is not the poor little thing we should be worrying about, it's a two year old little boy, that the family services let down. He should be alive and well, living in a loving adopted home by now, if they would have done their job. Nancy Grace is not to blame for this whole fiasco, Melinda brought all this on herself. I wouldn't want to live either if I had lost control, and killed one of my children. She, in my opinion, killed herself out of quilt!!!!!
If you don't like the show, quit watching. A very large percentage of us do like watching as the ratings show.
Belle I'm glad to hear that someone agrees with me that the child welfare system in Florida is really not doing its' job.
Little Trenton is probably not the only child left in these circumstances.
Carlene
If Nancy Grace really cared about children she'd have some but she is to busy exploting them to make millions on a TV show and book deals. How any one could watch her show and defend her is the thing that is beyond me. I don't watch her but she is still being a judge and jury for many people who we don't know there quilt. If she hasn't gone to far now she will. I think she is just about rateings and nothing else. If she cared about the law she would still be a prosecutor.
Glad to hear that Nancy Grace brings up some important facts, one being that Trenton's toys etc. were in the trash,but no clothes were found, so that gives people the hope to also look for an alive Trenton.
It's all for Trenton's benefit not the sicko mother. I see there are still people out there feeling sorry for her.
So why did Melinda go on her show? No one forced her to do it. I guess she did not know about NG.
You only have yourself to blame if you take your life into your own hands. You can't blame that on other people otherwise you would have to blame her parents and everyone else in her life. Including Melinda's Grandparents who had the gun in their house. Putting blame on NG for her suicide is doing an injustice to all the people who have lost someone due to a sucide and by everyone blaming NG is enough to say that we are all to blame when a loved one commits suicide. Or blaming Stephen King when his movies might 'make' someone act out one of his movies in real life, so knock it off... Stop blaming people for the wrongful actions of others. This is the reason this world is in the condition that it is in today, noone wants to take responsibilty for what they themselves to.
I believe that Nancy Grace is simply a narcissistic self-promoter and has little to offer anyone seeking truth. She is obviously a pawn of the police and believes that everyone charged is guilty. I waste no time watching her show (I did catch her show on Court TV several times), and I think that the viewers who like her are as pathetic as she is. If you like her, read about the problems the courts had with her while she was a prosecutor in Georgia, then reconsider your view. After reading all that, if you still like her, shame on you.
Prosecutors prove Nancy Grace is wrong again.
New DNA evidence clears parents in the JON BENET RAMSEY case, contrary to the false claims made by Nancy Grace. Another lawsuit against Nancy is expected soon by the victims of her harassments and false assertions that Nancy said the parents both belong in prison for a crime they never committed. Ramsey’s attorney, Linn Wood, stated he will be filing another lawsuit against this Predator soon for the crimes she committed, and for the crimes Nancy continues to commit against real victims of crimes.
I love Nancy Grace as long as she is not attacking victims of crimes like she does all the time. Many want her incarcerated for some of the illegal crimes she has done against so many victims, but I think time would be better served if Nancy gets sentenced to do some community service activities where she can be a spokesperson for some pf the problems she continues to struggle with herself like her drug and alcohol problems she says she still has. That, would be the only reason I could fathom not to lock her up for at least twenty years at the minimum because it is not justice to victimize and harm real victims of crimes like Nancy does; some have even lost their life.
page: 1
BarbaraOct 9th, 2006 - 04:09:04
Melinda Duckett threatened suicide when she was pregnant. There is a history of disturbing behavior that goes back so long, Nancy was the last person to interview her by chance. But I'd like to point you to her excellent coverage of the Mark Foley scandal.
http://www.ilovenancygrace.com
Thank you.
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