McMartin ‘Retrial’ on Afternoon Talk Shows
The McMartin defendants were retried and found guilty on America’s talk shows. Children were cajoled by parents and studio audiences to retell their implausible tales of satanic cults, sacrificial altars and mutilations--all of this done for the amusement of home viewers who feed on this kind of trivialization like hogs at a trough. All the while, profiting from the misfortune of the defendants were the paragons of TV sleaze: Rivera, Winfrey, Raphael, et al.
MICHAEL GRACE, Los Angeles
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