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Chez Pazienza

Chez Pazienza

Posted: January 26, 2010 07:08 PM

Turnabout is Fair Prey

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Read More: Hln , Nancy Grace , Media News

I don't even know where the hell to begin with this one.

Anybody who's visited my site more than a couple of times is probably well aware of my unrelenting abhorrence of Nancy Grace. In the past, I've called her "the most loathsome, feckless troll to currently, inexplicably, have a forum on national television," a "vile, unscrupulous monster who peddles morbid prurience like a five-dollar street-walker and whose brand of rank solipsism is matched only by her near-sociopathic disregard for the lives she's ruined and exploited and by her apparent contempt for the tenets of responsible journalism (to say nothing of basic human decency)."

And that was exercising restraint.

Well, in a display of almost incomprehensibly naked hypocrisy, lawyers for both Nancy Grace and CNN filed an emergency motion in an Ocala, Florida courtroom yesterday demanding that cameras be barred from recording Grace's scheduled deposition this Thursday in the wrongful death suit brought against her and her employer. The suit, as you probably know, stems from an interview Grace did in 2006 with the mother of a missing toddler -- an interview that was more like a police interrogation and one which may have led to the woman committing suicide less than 24-hours later. The family of Melinda Duckett claims that not only did Grace coax the troubled 21-year-old mother onto her show then bully her when she couldn't or wouldn't satisfactorily answer questions about her missing son -- leading Grace to of course imply that Duckett herself was behind the disappearance -- but that Grace then added insult to injury by airing the pre-taped interview after Duckett had already shot herself.

Grace's lawyers say the presence of cameras in the courtroom would cause unnecessary embarrassment to their client.

Sorry -- what?

The irony is so bald-faced as to be almost laughable: Nancy Grace was allowed to put a 21-year-old girl from Central Florida -- a woman who, regardless of what she may or may not have done, was an unsophisticated neophyte when it came to the way a modern media feeding frenzy works and was clueless to the fact that she was the blood in the shark-infested waters -- in front of a television camera and publicly eviscerated her to the point where it may have led to her killing herself. But now Grace, who's made an entire career out of pulling this kind of repugnant horseshit over and over again in the name of ratings, should be afforded a measure of respect and spared the embarrassment of being grilled on national television? She somehow deserves more consideration than she gives the guests on her show, many of whom she seems to delight in playing the venerable inquisitor of? She deserves to be spared just a small taste of what she put Melinda Duckett through?

Not a chance.

Live by public humiliation, die by it, Nancy.

 

Follow Chez Pazienza on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chezpazienza

 
 
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BookKeepersSon
Don't take me alive
02:15 PM on 01/29/2010
"the most loathsome, feckless troll to currently, inexplicably, have a forum on national television,,, etc, etc.

That may be the best description I have ever read in my life!

Bravo! Bravo! Author! Author!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
LiberalDem
02:19 PM on 01/28/2010
Reading this article just reinforces why I don't watch Nancy Grace. It's just seedy voyeurism masked as journalism.
01:38 AM on 01/28/2010
What's up, Nancy Grace loves the cameras.
11:25 PM on 01/27/2010
Nancy Grace is a loathesome person, no doubt.

Having said that, I don't care if she loaded the gun and handed it to Duckett...

NO ONE is responsible for anyone's suicide but themselves.

By definition.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
Weirdwriter
01:11 AM on 01/28/2010
And yet assisted suicide is a crime in this country.

For good reason.
01:16 AM on 01/28/2010
What is the reason?

And why is it good?
03:39 PM on 01/28/2010
Really?

There was a recent case in which the mother of one teen took to the internet to continually and maliciously attack a former friend of her daughter... in which, over a period of months she engaged in spreading the most vile rumors and posting them online where all the girl's friends and classmates would see them, made a series of false sexually explicit accusations that utterly destroyed the girl's reputation.

The girl committed suicide after being completely ostracised at school, labeled a sl*t, a wh*re, you name it. All based on false accusations made by this twisted woman, posing as a fellow classmate.

You're telling me you attach no responsibility for the suicide to that woman? Really??
04:51 PM on 01/28/2010
NONE WHATSOEVER.

I know the case you speak of...I said that same thing then, too.

I'm not saying that harrassing the girl was right...it was not. She should be charged with harassment or stalking, etc.

But, fair or unfair, EVERYONE faces hardship...you have to persevere in the face of the hardship.

That girl did not d*e because she was stalked or made fun of, she is gone because she CHOSE to not deal with it.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
coolmaiden
I fight right-wing bullies
06:46 PM on 01/27/2010
Oh, how I share your disgust, Chez. She was like this before she was even on TV. She had been disciplined twice for prosecutorial misconduct while with the Fulton Co. DA and it doesn't seem to have affected her one bit. I hope she draws a judge with a shrill voice and an annoying tendency to interrupt others.
06:43 PM on 01/27/2010
First of all, a twenty-one year old mother is not a "girl" (imagine referring to a twenty-one year old man as "boy.") Second, it seems to me that if I was going to go on television right after my child had been abducted (a) I would find out what kind of show I was going on (hadn't she bothered to find out who Nancy Grace was or what her show was like first?) and (b) I would be focused on finding my child, not defending my reputation, (c) I would feel so guilty about somehow having allowed this to happen to my child that I would be agreeing with Nancy Grace that I ought to get the chair, except (d) I would be determined to go on living so that I could do everything I could think of to find my child and get it out of harm's way.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
annis
11:46 AM on 01/27/2010
The nasty tone of this piece undoes any criticism of Nancy Grace - and would for anyone else.

And, "regardless of what she may or may not have done" - referring to a mother who obstructed and confused efforts to find her missing baby child - is a poor turn of phrase.

I have found Nancy Grace to be pretty straight; not pleasant, but perfectly right on with her questions....
certainly in the sordid worlds and lives she attempts to address and clarify the situation and not let any niceties or false comforts get in the way. In the case mentioned here as well as others, anyone who puts up excuses doesn't deserve to get away with them.

Where is that child, anyway, by the way?
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amyhasopinions
plotter of world peace
12:14 PM on 01/27/2010
"Where is that child, anyway, by the way?"

Nancy Grace, is that YOU? Quit messing around on Huffingtonpost and call your agent. You're going to need to do some serious PR work when your trial is over. ;-)

Sorry, Annis. I have to agree with Chez. Nancy's career is built on embarrassing and grilling her guests. Karmic justice s*cks, but it's always doled out fairly.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
annis
04:16 PM on 01/27/2010
1) Thanks for the laugh, at least.

2) And just how do we know which event is "karmic justice" ?

3) http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/27/crimesider/entry6146531.shtml

4) FYI - I think the proceedings should be open in the wrongful death suit. What I was saying was that Pazienza's "prose" was over-the-top itself. Why criticize someone for doing what you are doing yourself?

Most importantly - what happened to that child? Where is he if he is still alive?
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BlackJAC
It's better to be a black king than a white knight
03:22 PM on 01/27/2010
Your entire post is an excuse for Nancy's antics.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jeffreygeez
11:32 AM on 01/27/2010
Nancy is Graceless and tasteless. Many viewers apparently find that attractive.Go figure.
11:07 AM on 01/27/2010
BWHAHAHA...I'll be handing out the popcorn.