Lets Make a Deal

Well, OK.  Finally, it is DONE.  I am so glad this Sandusky trial is over with.  Lets be clear:  not just being on, but what is the phrase, serving on a jury in a case such as this is a thankless task.  The depth of his evil needs not comment, nor compassion for the many victims.  But what story is to be told, which has not been told?  Read on:

But lets also get ready for a spectacle, not unlike Michael Jackson, OJ, Anna Nicole Smith, Bernard Madoff, what a size this will be.  It has to be on CNN all night, for three nights, FOX, MSN, The New York Times, then it really is just getting started--one by one, the jurors with microphones thrust into their faces, the interviews on Good Morning America, all the talk shows late and early, then the biggest one of them all:

All the money advances for rights to tell THEIR version of the trial, what they felt, saw, observed, and experienced.  Yes, being on a jury is not an easy job.

But more and more, we increasingly see that whether it be the guilty, or those sitting in on those guilty, many get to make money or get fame or notoriety by virtue of having been somewhere.  Get the printing presses rolling.  Pay day is coming, and soon, and it is here.  And if money is not to be quickly produced, then a quick all paid trip to NY, making the rounds on all the shows, the interviews, the discussions.

And let us not just forget jurors, but the expert lawyers or prosecuting attorneys with expert knowledge as to how things go, all THEIR opinions have be given AGAIN.  Do they all do this for free?  On cable television?  Patched in via satelite, Marsha Clark, Mark Geragos? Then the big, expensive Harvard guns, like the smarter than smart Alan Dershowitz?  Then prosecuters get to become rocks stars.  On the podium, the cameras, the flashing lights.  Click, click!  Lets rock.

What is new is the size and pervasiveness of media today, the insatiable speed and immensity of Twitter, hashtags.  As Andy Warhol more or less once said, we all get our fifteen minutes of fame.  First The Super Bowl, then the big trials.  Next up?  We want to be feed.  And regularly.  We want to be stimulated.

I could be wrong here, but if I am a betting man, bet that I am not.  The gravy train is coming, and for all the jurors.