ABUSE PRIVILEGE: Media Hypocrisy in the  Jon-Benet Ramsey case By Janice Leber

It’s a story screaming for media overkill: a beauty queen beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled in her own home, with a minimum of clues left behind. The police say little about the case, leaving reporters to speculate wildly about possible murder scenarios. And inevitably, invariably, unremittingly, they showcase photos and videos of the victim in happier times, effervescing with youth, glamour, and endless possibility.

We’ve heard this story before. Hell, by now we’re all charter members of the Murder of the Month Club. But this time, the story has a gut-wrenching twist: our murdered heroine never saw her seventh birthday.

The horrid death of Jon-Benet Ramsey, discovered in her family’s basement on Christmas, was the first homicide of 1996 for the city of Boulder, Colorado. Just a few more days, and Boulder would have had a murder-free year.

Immediately everything about the circumstances of her death sounded suspicious, but the aspect that grabbed the media spotlight was Jon-Benet’s career as a beauty queen. At the ripe old age of six, this child knew more about hair care and make-up application than most of us will ever know. She was a precocious charmer with a megawatt smile and a vast collection of 8-by-10 glossies.

As in all these tragic cases of a life cut short, the photographs make one’s heart ache for what might have been.

Then another set of photos came to light – and tabloid readers were invited to see the actual crime scene, to witness the defilement and depravity that snuffed out a precious life.

It stands to reason that people would be interested in such a multi-faceted story, and popular interest is what stirs today’s "journalists" to action. Apparently some wily, deep-pocketed someone was able to convince lab personnel to release copies of the crime scene photos.

But the tabloids can’t be faulted for their exploitation of the Ramsey case. Sleaze is their tradition; sensationalism is their stock in trade.

The TV networks, on the other hand, have always prided themselves on their journalistic integrity. Walter Cronkite used to be The Most Trusted Man In America. And as fewer and fewer people read a newspaper, TV news has become a vital link between U.S. citizens and the world around them.

NBC Dateline, winner of an embarassing number of awards last year for outstanding news coverage, was out front from day one on the Ramsey case. In nearly every episode – and Dateline airs several times a week – they were able to fit in some photos and video of Jon-Benet dancing and singing her little heart out for pageant points. Usually the big update of the day was that there was no new information on the case, but at least we were able to watch the eye-catching pictures anew, night after night.

Then they outdid themselves. They vowed to blow the lid off the bizarre world of kiddie beauty pageants. Hallelujah, another chance to show the sparkly, spangley little girl swaying her hips and winking seductively!

One might be inclined to agree with their new premise, that beauty contests for toddlers are strange, that the very notion of a "six-year-old beauty queen" is outright ludicrous – but it’s hard to keep from wondering …

Who is more exploitive of these little girls – their mothers, the pageant organizers … or NBC Dateline?

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