Go ahead, drop the soap

If I see one more Scott Peterson headline, I might pull out all my hair. \nIt's not that I'm not sympathetic to the murder of a pregnant woman. I am.\nBut the Peterson trial is not news any more than are the other 12,000 homicides in the Unites States every year.\nThere are three reasons the Petersons are getting coverage. A) They're white. B) They're attractive. C) They're members of the upper-middle class. In summary, they resemble characters from "The Young and the Restless," and the national media is making a poorly scripted soap opera with them.\nAnd in no way does a soap opera count as news.\nYet, the media continues to cover the story like moldy crust on a bad loaf of bread. In fact, a Peterson headline is worn thinner than the sports clichés "take it one game at a time" and "defense wins championships." And every one sounds the same to me. "Peterson considers testifying." "Peterson lawyers move for dismissal." "Peterson had trysts with sea turtles." I might as well be listening to Charlie Brown's mother, because when I see the "P" word, all I hear is "Wa, wa, waaa."\nThese stories are absurd -- and inappropriate -- because news should be the pursuit of stories that are important to all our lives. Journalism is not a soap opera.\nBut otherwise credible news agencies are sensationalizing this one case to pander to the hoi polloi's primitive desires. This homicidal drama teaches us nothing about society, ourselves or the world, as good journalism should do. Rather, it transforms us into Roman peasants climbing over each other in the Coliseum, thirsty for the blood of gladiators.\nLet's imagine for a moment a similar situation in California in which a pregnant woman, only this time with her 5-year-old son, disappears off the face of the Earth. Only this time the woman is poor and Hispanic. Do you think we'd read about it in the newspaper?\nYou can stop imagining because it happened. At around the same time Laci Peterson disappeared, several women in northern California went missing, only they left without media magnets attached to their backs. Those magnets cling to beauty, money and Anglicanism. Without those key elements, there is no "story." Unfortunately for Laci, she had all three.\nThe same goes for Lori Hacking. \nAnd Elizabeth Smart and JonBenet Ramsey. Hundreds of children are murdered every year, not to mention the thousands that go missing. They are all truly tragic events, each worthy of its own recognition. But another tragedy lies in the way national media picks and chooses among them to decide which ones are worthy of year-long, in-depth coverage and which ones are just fodder for the mill. All involve real people with real lives, but unfortunately for us, and for the victims, some of them become glamorized pop-martyrs.\nSo I am proposing a plan to boycott all coverage of the Peterson trial. I already know I won't be gathering information about it. The fact that I know nothing about the case makes me proud. \nAnd I want you to join me. So put down that People magazine, turn down "Headline News" and recycle those ridiculous newspapers that claim a personal tragedy is an ongoing episode in the annals of history.\nThere's a place for the melodrama surrounding the Scott Peterson case. It's between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on network television.\nLeave it there.