From the beginning, in its treatment of the JonBenet Ramsey murder the American media has pandered to and encouraged the very worst instincts in the population: prurience, a fascination with the lives of the wealthy, obsession with celebrity in general. The television networks, daily newspapers and weekly news magazines have wallowed in the gutter in this case and so many others--the Simpson trial, Michael Jackson's legal problems, the Chandra Levy and Laci Peterson murders, etc. The Ramsey case shows the media at its ugliest, most shallow and most ignorant. No doubt a political motive was involved here too. The terror bomb plot in Britain was threatening to unravel, or at least disappoint, the war in Lebanon had not achieved US aims, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are disastrous. The media instinctively strove to change the subject. What does it know best, what makes it most comfortable? The intersection of sex scandals or sex crimes with the lives of rich or famous people. Both the billionaires who own and operate America's "free press" and its leading figures, for the most part, are human refuse. They write or say whatever suits their immediate purposes, which corresponds to the economic and political interests of the largest corporations, the richest individuals and the most predatory circles in Washington. They lie as ordinary people draw breath. Their behavior in the Ramsey case is of a piece with everything else they do. Nothing they write or say should be given the slightest credibility.

footage of a heavily made-up adorable little girl lasciviously prancing around,