The Nardonis: Reality or Fiction?

I've been witnessing with distress the phenomenon of certain parties in the Brazilian news media turning tragic events into literal soap-operas for TV.

For them, events like floods, street violence and tragic traffic accidents have been covered in such a way as to turn them into some manner of eerie "reality show". Recently, the sad case of a young girl assassinated by her father and step mother in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has resurfaced in the local news media as just such a dysfunctional piece of entertainment.

The entire event was exploited by the local media into painstaking detail. Things like reports of what it was that the accused had eaten for lunch and dinner would pop up between reports speculating on the proceedings themselves.

I have observed with concern the media manipulating public opinion by carefully selecting and incisively divulging those facts that would provoke the public. I was surprised to see the public's response of crowding the facade of the courts to accompany the progress of the trials on site. It was distressing to see reporters interviewing the public, on an hourly basis, about their wagers on what the verdict would be. I was appalled to see a girl who had been trying to gain access to the courtroom confirming she was not a student of law, but that she was there for a life experience she could identify with. What experience would that be? Was she planning on assassinating her own daughter?

It seems that the people following the trial forgot the fact that this was a real life situation. They seemed to have forgotten that a real girl had died cruelly and that her assassins, her very parents, were about to be judged and sentenced for that heinous and most unnatural crime. This was no fictional show constructed for the public's enjoyment.

In the end, when the verdict was announced, the general gender gathered at the courts commemorated the result with enthusiasm and - to my distaste - with fireworks. Fireworks?!?! What were they celebrating? A girl assassinated cruelly? Her two siblings left without parents because they were convicted on charges of killing their sister? Was it the conviction of two deranged felons who were insane or wicked enough to kill their own daughter? There was NOTHING worth celebrating in this entire ordeal.

Nevertheless, given that the news media had presented this sad tale in the same fashion as an entertainment channel would present a mini-series, the tragic account of the assassination of one Isabela Nardoni became just that: "entertainment for the masses". The Simpsons at 17:00h, the Tudors at 19:00h and the Nardonis marathon in between. Don't miss it!