- Did
"Jenny Jones" Commit Murder?
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In perhaps the
biggest outrage since the Holyfield/Lewis draw, a Michigan jury ordered
the producers of the "Jenny Jones" show to pay $25 million
in a wrongful death lawsuit. Three days after appearing on the show,
a guest shot and killed another guest. The family of the deceased
sued "Jenny Jones," holding them responsible for intentionally
setting up the killer for embarrassment and shame.
In a show on secrets,
Jonathan Schmitz learned, in front of a studio audience, that his
secret admirer was, in fact, another man. Now the show warned Schmitz
that his secret admirer could be male or female. Also, as the defense
pointed out, the guests knew each other, were friends, flew back from
the show on the plane together, and even went shopping before the
murder.
Yet, apparently,
so embarrassed and humiliated at having a known-to-all male homosexual
admirer, Schmitz shot and killed the man. The show never aired.
Plaintiff’s attorney
Geoffrey Feiger said "Jenny Jones" all but killed the guest,
"They solicited a victim. They picked a murderer and provided
a motive. They did everything in this case except pull the trigger."
Yeah, except "Jenny Jones" didn’t pull the trigger. The
killer did.
But the jury felt
that "Jenny Jones" should have and could have foreseen the
killing, should have known that an unstable homophobic guest might
erupt and murder his admirer.
Don’t you think
that we’re expecting just a bit much from a tabloid show talent booker?
Hell, we don’t know how soon the Dow is gonna hit 12,000, or when
Milosevic will cave in. But we’re supposed to tell that a guest is
a) mentally unstable, b) homicidal, and c) that the stigma of having
a homosexual admirer would be so debilitating, insulting, and offensive
that the homophobe would gun down his secret admirer. What is a booker
supposed to do, call the Psychic Friends Network?
Professionals
can’t even determine whether and when someone may kill. Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold, the gunmen responsible for the Littleton massacre,
got a clean bill of health from juvenile authorities. After getting
arrested for theft, they underwent a year-long "diversion"
program at juvenile hall. After Harris completed the program, which
included anger management sessions, his report read, "Eric is
a very bright young man who is likely to succeed in life. He is intelligent
enough to achieve lofty goals as long as he stays on task and remains
motivated." Klebold, too, received a positive evaluation, "Dylan
did a very nice job on diversion...Dylan is a bright young man who
has a great deal of potential. If he is able to tap his potential
and become self-motivated he should do well in life." We all
know what happened.
According to the
"Jenny Jones" jury, the show "set up" the guest,
with the consequences predictable and foreseeable. Foreseeable? How
many tabloid shows have paraded across our TV sets in the last twenty
years? Donahue, Povich, Williams, Winfrey, Perez, Leeza, Lake, Raphael,
Springer, Jenny Jones, and others. Now, add up all the shows,
and the number is probably in the tens of thousands.
Out of all those
hosts, all those shows, all those hooks, angles and "gotchas,"
how many guests have murdered other guests? To my knowledge—until
"Jenny Jones"—none. Yet "Jenny Jones" should have
foreseen this killing. And was the killer really blindsided? This
is, after all, "Jenny Jones," not "Masterpiece Theatre."
What did Schmitz think would happen on the show? That they’d announce
his scholarship to Cal Tech? That Ed McMahon and Publishers Clearing
House were giving him $1 million?
What’s next? A
lawsuit against Dan Rather, because had the media not focused so much
on Littleton, Colorado, we would have had no copycat crimes? Should,
God forbid, another such tragedy happen on campus, can survivors and
family sue CNN because of its 24-hour coverage of Littleton?
What about those
high-speed chase broadcasts on local news? Some say suspects flee
in order to get on local news. If a bystander gets hurt, should he
sue the guy who flies the "skycam" helicopter?
According to the
instructions in the "Jenny Jones" case, the judge advised
the jury that they need only find that "Jenny Jones" was
a contributing factor to the murder. Well, so were the tires attached
to the wheels attached to the car driven by the killer to the airport
to appear on the show. Let’s sue Goodyear!
Why didn’t the
survivors sue the man who killed their loved one? That’s easy. Deep
pockets, babe.
Well, "Jenny
Jones" intends to appeal. Who knows? Maybe the appellate court
might point the finger elsewhere. Starting, and ending, with the killer.