Runaway....

As the story of the runaway bride here in Georgia unfolds, I find more disturbing
not Jennifer Wilbanks' poor judgement or selfish behavior, but the fascination and
obsession we have of her story. We've become nosey voyeurs peering into someone
else's bedroom waiting to catch them showing emotion or maybe doing something
wrong. She made a mistake. So what? Who cares that she skipped town the week of
her wedding? CNN/Money posted pictures of some of the gifts that were purchased on
their registry. The estimated value of her wedding (approx. $100,000) was also
reported.

But its not her mistakes that are disturbing to me. Its what we watch on TV. We somehow feel entitled to know what happens to people that "appear" in the news. Its almost like we're at the zoo and ANYTHING that person does is fair game for our eyes and ears. We're quick to judge all their actions, forgetting that most of what happens is never reported. The family emotions, complicated relationships, specific events surrounding her dissappearance are never known. And without the specifics we love to conjecture, judge and conclude.

I don't watch that much television because I don't subscribe to cable. However, I do watch network news occasionally. Although, I mostly read the news online. This past Saturday, after she was found, our local Fox station aired a disturbing video of her family's reaction. The footage was shot during the night from outside the house, looking into the kitchen. You could see the family moving around, hugging each other, smiling, obviously elated with the news. It was as though, the family didn't have the right to privacy at this point. They were on display and all their emotions and private moments belonged to us.

This reminded me of similar news footage when Martha Stewart was released from prison. A video clip of her in her own kitchen was widely distributed.

I don't really have any conclusions about why this is happening. Just some observations. It would be easy to just sit back and say that its the media's fault. They're feeding us this crap. Yet, I don't think that's always the case.