Nancy Grace’s approach to legal analysis and legal news (and I use those terms loosely with her) has always been a mystery to me.
As a former TV journalist and an attorney, of course, my envy can get the better of me sometimes (how come I can’t get my own legal TV gig?) But if the television gods were watching her this week, and they have any shred of decency, her show will soon be booted off CNN.
Known as a victims’ rights kind of gal, Grace pounds on her guests relentlessly, assuming that the accused are guilty until proven innocent and liars until she proclaims them otherwise.
Saturday, CNN aired Grace’s show in which she interviewed the mother of a two-year-old Florida boy who is missing and was purportedly kidnapped. Grace’s “interview” was disturbing, to say the least. Her questions all but suggested that the mother, 21-year-old Melinda Duckett, was the culprit and not a grieving victim.
“Where were you? Why aren’t you telling us where you were that day?” Grace angrily demanded as she pounded her desk with her fist, leaning into the camera with a snear that Boris Badenov of Bullwinkle fame would envy, and ultimately questioning her about whether she had taken a lie detector test.
Hours after the interview, and BEFORE the show aired, Melinda Duckett committed suicide. Yet, CNN, Grace and her producers chose to air the program anyway.
Grace has taken much fire over her on-air interrogation tactics. It’s clear that she’s no objective journalist. Her specialty is to harangue, berate, and infer nefarious intent in the name of ratings, … oops, I mean protecting victims everywhere.
There is no doubt that the police were dubious about the mother’s explanation, and she may ultimately have been a suspect. But since when do TV journalists get to become the judge, jury and executioner? Even if Duckett had not taken her own life, Grace crossed the line in this interview — she wasn’t trying to ask fair, yet probing, questions to inform her viewers. She was merely putting on a spectacle. And CNN is complicit in this, having decided to air the show even after the mother’s death.
Grace is entitled to whatever opinions she wants and, as a victim of a violent crime herself (decades ago her fiance was murdered), I can understand how and why she became a criminal prosecutor and why she takes a vigilante-like stand on some issues. But she’s been crossing a line for a long time — the line of fair and respectable journalism — for the kind of reporting made famous by Don Henley’s lyrics to Dirty Laundry.
As long as you get the widow, or the soon-to-be suicide victim, on the set, executives know people will watch, and that means more commercial ad revenue. Grace is unapologetic and says it was most likely the mother’s own guilt, and not Grace’s inexcusable and overly aggressive manner, that caused Duckett to shoot herself.
A federal judge last year pronounced the Grace played “fast and loose” with legal ethics while she was a Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor. Why should we think she’d be any different as a “journalist?”
September 15th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Wow! I was just about to write about this for my blog! I too was absolutely horrified when I saw her segment with Melinda Duckett. Nancy Grace gives lawyers a bad name. It’s one thing to speculate about Ms. Duckett’s involvement privately, but entirely another to badger and accuse her on national TV. Yes, Melinda Duckett may have been involved with her son’s disappearance, but if she wasn’t…well, if I were Nancy Grace I don’t know how I would sleep at night.
September 15th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Mrs. Grace has never made a good impression. Why she has to be so exterme is beyond me and with such a sad result.
September 15th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Lawyer mama, I haven’t known how she’s slept for a long time.
Pecos blue … I have a hard time imagining all the extreme people we hear from in the news every day.
September 15th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Oh, man — I read the headline first and thought it was about me.
I have never actually watched that woman, but I have absolutely no respect for her based on what I’ve heard. She gives Nancys a bad name.
September 15th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
No way it could be you, Nancy. I love your blog.
Plus, my mom is a Nancy … don’t get her started!
September 15th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
This is a terrible tragedy.. I completely agree with you .. Why is it acceptable for people be berated in the name of entertainment? This reminds me of that horrid Laura Schlessinger. I don’t know how she sleeps at night either.
September 16th, 2006 at 12:48 am
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November 27th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Nancy Grace is going to Hell for sure, no doubt at all. Nancy has victimized tooooooooooo many victims already. She needs some time in prison for her crimes Nancy has perpetrated against victims. Because Nancy was never a victim herself, she has no clue at all. Nancy “claims” she was a victim before, but the facts are that Nancy has never been a victim of a crime. Her fiancé was, but not Nancy. And, Nancy was never even related to Keith (her fiancé). Nancy should expect to pay huge in the lawsuits filed against her by Melinda’s parents. What Nancy contributed to, resulting in the death of Melinda IS a crime. Things are finally catching up to Nancy. Hope Nancy’s TV-replacement will cover Nancy’s incarceration down the road, and maybe criticize what Nancy gets served for meals while Nancy is in prison. We will be sure to tune into that show. Here is another website Petition for Nancy to be charged with Negligent Homicide. http://www.petitiononline.com/nopetit1/petition.html
April 20th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Nancy Grace was proven wrong again on all of her assertions on the Winkler case on Thursday April 19th. Doesn’t CNN management ever watch Nancy’s shows anymore?
Nancy Grace has documented herself to be incorrect, in some fashion, on just about every single case Nancy has attempted to cover over the recent months. While Nancy continues to rack up more potential lawsuit cases against herself and CNN for her continued defamation, slander, libel, and even the wrongful death Nancy is currently linked to by Nancy’s own possible illegal actions, it is well documented that Nancy Grace is not un-willing to commit even more such crimes against even more and more victims.
Some Courts have already reprimanded Nancy Grace for some of her documented misconduct. But, Nancy continues to rack up more and more violations of Civil Law, and possibly even Criminal Law too, and it is hard to keep up with the continued violations-count, and her seemingly constant violations Nancy has been committing against victim after victim after victim.
The Lawsuits that are soon to be coming from VanderSloot, Howard Stern of the Anna Nichol Smith case, and others against Nancy infractions (according to the attorneys) and the upcoming Lawsuits from all the Duke defendants, as well as possibly from Winkler herself according to her attorney Ferese, Nancy’s continued law violations appear to be occurring on nearly every single day Nancy is on television.
My goodness, Don Imus just lost his job for stating something that could, in-fact, may have been a factual and accurate statement by his derogatory statements towards the women’s basketball team. How CNN can allow Nancy to document even more violations against even more and more victims is just senseless and a total shame for CNN to just stand by and allow this irreprehensible behavior to continue against more and more victims from Nancy Grace. It is truly just ridiculous. Perhaps it is time to change from CNN to broadcasting Nancy Grace on something like comedy central where her conduct more appropriates is representative.
Has CNN already forgotten that Nancy Grace has current lawsuits filed against her for Nancy’s role in the death of a non-convicted victim who Nancy Grace had called on the telephone? Wake up CNN, Imus had to apparently be removed from the airways, and he wasn’t even directly involved in connection of someone’s death. Nor was Imus continuing to victimize more victims as Nancy has documented that she is continuing.
Maybe you, CNN, can provide the public with the “magic number” CNN feels is the appropriate-limit that Nancy has to achieve with her slanderous, libelous, her connections to a possible wrongful death actions Nancy has documented against another victim(s), and her defamational statements against victims before CNN will take similar actions as MSNBC had to do towards Don Imus.
Everyone will be anxious to hear what the “magic number” CNN will tolerate as the group of victims of Nancy Grace grows and grows from her illegal, immoral, and illicit conduct towards so many victims.
And, how can CNN allow a person like Nancy Grace to be around any true victim at Virginia Tech while Nancy has current lawsuits filed against her for Nancy’s alleged involvement in an early death of a emotionally distraught young mother. The management of CNN needs some serious investigation-measures to be implemented immediately, for the safety of current and potential future victims of the unprofessional conduct of Nancy Grace.
How CNN can allow Nancy Grace to have any access to victims at Virginia Tech is a matter that should, perhaps, be investigated by the authorities and by attorneys for the potential victims of her unprofessional conduct. There is a reason Nancy Grace has lawsuits pending against her, with more lawsuits expected in the near future. For CNN to allow Nancy Grace to have contact with any victim is a crime in and of itself, and needs further consideration by the authorities and by attorneys for the victims sake and safety. Allowing Nancy Grace to have access to any victim is like placing a Predator
near a schoolyard while the trial is ongoing for the alleged Predator. It should just not happen.
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=85250&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2F&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true