Apparently I struck a nerve with last week’s column regarding
the Laci Peterson media circus.
Apparently I struck a nerve with last week’s column regarding the Laci Peterson media circus. The amount of hate mail was enough to make my editor jealous and prove there is no greater prejudice than what one can experience from your own kind. In this case, it was the women who lashed out.
Many thought the column rude, disrespectful and unsympathetic. But there was one e-mail that had us roaring in the newsroom. The woman was repulsed, then asked me, and I quote, “What kind of reporting person gives a personal opinion? Didn’t you say: report the facts?”
OK, America, I hope you caught that. As to the answer to this woman’s question, I’m called a columnist. Let’s see – the first clue should be the photo next to the story. But the reason they call it a personal column is because, why? It’s all personal!
This woman typed in bold letters as if she were shouting at me, “it is NOT a media circus, we are lucky to be updated.”
Well, here’s an update, toots. On May 22 a story came off the AP wire that Scott Peterson of Modesto, Calif. got tired of all the publicity and moved to Utah. True story, folks.
A man bearing the same name as Laci’s husband couldn’t take it anymore – the phone calls, the pity and the anger. This man has four children and a wife who is alive and well, but because of the extensive media coverage, people are calling him at odd hours of the morning, asking him how it felt to kill his wife?
There was one e-mail I received from a gentleman who admitted he was a nut about the case, but agreed he was more interested in the facts and what the current president had to say. He understood the point of my column and obviously understood the difference between a column and a news story.
Having a column is a privilege. Having an opinion and the right to exercise it is freedom.
Speaking of freedom to voice my opinion (let me be perfectly clear – this is my personal opinion), if Sultaana Freeman believes removing her veil to take her driver’s license photograph would be a violation of her religious beliefs, then maybe she shouldn’t be driving a car. Why should we change our laws to accommodate her? This is not fair to the majority of Americans.
This Florida woman is using the court system to fight her religious right to keep her face covered. Get real. We are a nation of rules and every time we bend the rules for one person the laws change to protect the minority rule. One day it will backfire.
What I would like to know is who is the idiot who gave Freeman her driver’s license in the first place?
