Some People Are Just Worth More than Others
Posted: Thursday, October 06, 2011
by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com
Quick – without checking an Internet search engine – what’s the name of Amanda Knox’s ex-boyfriend who was wrongly convicted of murder like she was? I didn’t think so. His name is Raffaele Sollecito. Don’t feel bad, I had to look it up, too. Now why is it that Amanda Knox is now a household name while we didn’t have a clue about his? Because, from the outset, the media deemed her as being worth much more than he.
Mr. Sollecito was indeed fortunate to have been paired with someone of such great value when he was unjustly convicted and thrown into prison. Had he been the only one facing this ordeal at that time, he would likely have been out of luck. Few outside of his circle of family and friends would have cared if he had rotted in prison. Do we even know where he went or what he did after he was released?
A few months ago, an African-American man from Richmond, Virginia was released from prison after DNA tests exonerated him on a rape conviction for which he had served 26 years behind bars. The story got a little bit of play from the local media for several days, but never got picked up nationally. I would venture to say that few outside the Richmond area would know his name or would have even heard about his story. However, had he been of Amanda Knox’s demographics, he (she) would easily have garnered national, or even worldwide, attention for a fraction of the time served.
While I’m happy for Amanda Knox and her family, I can’t help but wonder what the outcome would have been if it had been I who had been wrongly convicted of murder in Italy. Would I still be in prison right now? What about you? Where would you be? We could only hope to be as valuable as Amanda Knox. It’s a shame we are all not of equal value.
This Article has been viewed 385 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)I think that we are, but we are not all of equal interest, therein lies the oddity determined by the unilateral reign of the world media.
Carol, good point. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Of course now with the internet, we can't just lay the blame on the media. Everytime we click on a story about Amanda Knox and ignore the link to a story on the World Monetary Fund we become part of the problem. Instead of media outlets having to guess at our interest, they can now see clearly what we want to read about in pretty colored graphs.Paul, you are exactly right. When we the point the finger at the media, there are actually three pointed back at us. They only give us what we want. Too bad we constantly crave junk over substance.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.