Selling Jaycee Lee Dugard As Entertainment, In Pictures
JAYCEE Lee Dugard: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Jaycee Dugard in the news, with Madeleine McCann, Leonard Padilla and Elizabeth Smart…
News Review: “The Leonard show – Sacramento’s infamous bounty hunter stars in a reality TV show in his own mind”
He doesn’t seem to notice the sun beating down, instead more concerned with the constant bleating of his cell phone, which rings no fewer than four times in the span of an hour as Padilla monitors the Jaycee Dugard case.
Back in September, Anorak joked in “Jaycee Dugard: Media Funds Phillip Garrido’s Bail”:
If the mainstream media can get $30million together – a big if – would it pay the bail and then be best able to pepple dash the world with Phillip Garrido exclusives? Because Jaycee Duagard is there for our entertainment:
Now:
“I’ll pay the premium if you post the bonds,” he barks into his phone. “It’s what? Three million on one, four on the other? I’ll bet we can get $2.5 million for them.” Padilla clicks his phone shut and smiles.
“I told my nephew Tony, ‘Post the bond and I’ll sell the interview to NBC or ABC.’”…
And they’ll pay?
“I honestly didn’t think they’d set bail, but we had The Enquirer and the Globe and Star interested, and they’ll pay the big bucks, they’ll pay the premium.”
The Ski Channel: “How high-profile kidnapping victims Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard are coping”
Padilla is right, of course:
The newest issue of “In Touch Weekly” has exclusive interviews and details about both of the girls’ ordeals. It also details how the wives of the kidnappers, Wanda Ileen Barzee and Nancy Garrido, contributed to the crimes using mind control and threats. The issue hit newsstands today.
To British readers the Jaycee Lee Dugard’s case is a freak show, a form of entertainment that takes over from where so-called reality shows end; what a TV executive would call a “last taboo” being wrapped up in fax concern to legitimise its broadcast.
Channel 4 recently aired “Captive for 18 Years: The Jaycee Lee Story“. Over archive footage, a voice told us that Jaycee “should never have been kidnapped” and that police knew the kidnapper “would strike again”.
Children tell of the fear.
And we learn nothing new. This is tabloid journalism that lacks the confidence to really go for it. It looks at the story after the event and merely invites viewers to stare. The factual tone of voice and clipped images are a conceit. This is tabloid telly being passed of as reporting.
But let’s make it relevant to you.
This Is Leicester: McCanns plan emotional return to Praia da Luz this year
He [Gerry McCann] also spoke of the “hope” he and his wife had taken from a Channel 4 documentary on the Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping, called Captured for 18 Years: The Jaycee Lee Story, which aired last week.
Mr McCann said watching the programme “had brought back some awful memories”. He added: “It was an incredibly tragic case, but it gave us hope.”
And we stare.
Madeleine McCann – we’re still reading about her. We’re not looking – we’re watching…
Posted: 8th, October 2009 | In: Madeleine McCann Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
