A media circus with two rings

In Elizabeth, W.Va., and Eagle, Colo., this week, TV had its satellite trucks in place to tell a tale of two towns.

And two young women.

One was Jessica Lynch, an unassuming, multi-medaled soldier arbitrarily anointed a heroine by the military and the media and adored by Americans everywhere.

The other was hidden in shadows of anonymity and often vilified, as if self-proclaimed rape victims earned their scarlet letters.

“More information is coming to light about the alleged victim,” KABC-TV announced misleadingly Wednesday evening. “New revelations,” MSNBC reported breathlessly the same evening. People who know her “speak out about what happened,” KCBS-TV boomed.

As this wall of hearsay rose, journalistic standards fell ever lower.

Yet for a couple of hours Tuesday, something quite amazing and unforeseen occurred. While juggling a pair of stories like oranges -- the reported demise of Saddam Hussein’s sons and the Appalachian homecoming of 20-year-old Lynch -- television was Kobe-less.

That’s right, blotto, cold turkey. Not a picture, not a rumor, not a word, not even a slam dunk or high five.

No censures or testimonials for Los Angeles Lakers phenom Kobe Bryant or the 19-year-old Eagle woman accusing him of rape. No clips of Bryant’s denial and professed love for the wife seated beside him in Los Angeles, whom he admitted cheating on with the unnamed woman, claiming the sex was consensual. No cozy chats with Bryant’s and the woman’s friends and others calling themselves friends. No sly winks or ugly rumors about her that called her credibility into question. No deep analysis by know-nothing gasbags masquerading as mavens. No innuendo or wild speculation about this case that has preoccupied much of the media, especially TV, since Bryant was taken into custody last month and charged with sexual assault.

Just like that, the Kobe blip had vanished from TV’s radar, the small screen’s inquiring minds no longer inquiring as Uday and Qusai Hussein and Lynch -- the former POW around whom the cable news channels had hoped to build their Tuesday -- now held their attention.

The lull was refreshing and, of course, fleeting.

It was 11:40 a.m., and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was in front of cameras confirming the deaths of the Hussein brothers in Baghdad, when MSNBC ran a crawl on the bottom of the screen repeating gossip about Bryant’s accuser. A bit later, when KCBS teased a squib about “Internet pictures of the woman in the Kobe Bryant case,” you knew this latte break had ended and bombast as usual had resumed.

So back to the Kobe case went much of TV, as Lynch retreated behind the protective shield of loving friends and family. She and they appeared more grounded than the gridlock of giddy media covering the pomp and yellow-ribboned motorcade celebrating Lynch in Elizabethtown, just down the road from her hometown of Palestine.

One can surely understand all this fuss by proud locals for one of their own in an event of pure Americana that was right out of Norman Rockwell.

The obsession by major broadcast networks and cable news channels is another matter. That’s especially true given vagueness about her capture and hospitalization by Iraqis in March and liberation by U.S. forces, followed by charges that the Pentagon embellished her story to make her a symbol of U.S. bravery and increase support for the war when it appeared to be going badly.

Just why Lynch was deemed more heroic than her comrades who died alongside her -- and others serving and dying in Iraq -- was not explained by those who covered her homecoming live as if she were a deity about to descend from the skies on her own.

How alike Lynch and Ms. Anonymous are in some ways, and how different their universes and their prospects.

They are small-town girls and about the same age. Both are also on the mend, one from injuries suffered in the crash of her vehicle before she was captured, the other surely scarred psychologically when scorched by the media’s hot beam and her alleged encounter with Bryant, if what she says is true.

Ahead for Lynch, besides more rehab, are marriage and book and movie offers galore, presumably. The future for Ms. Anonymous is much less rosy.

If lying about Bryant, she would be pounded by public anger and contempt. She would deserve it for smearing him and in doing so keeping her own name essentially out of it for the moment, thanks to an inequitable policy by most media to withhold the identities of alleged rape victims while naming the accused. It’s a policy under attack, by the way, now that this woman’s name and purported photos of her are appearing on the Internet, and Tom Leykis has “outed” her on his syndicated radio show, heard locally on KLSX-FM (97.1).

And if her story is true? It’s no wonder that experts in this field say most rape victims keep silent about being attacked.

Even if Bryant were tried and convicted, there would be no sainthood for Ms. Anonymous, thanks to the enduring stigma unfairly attached to rape victims. No high school marching bands, high-stepping drum majorettes and rides in open convertibles to cheering throngs. No worshipful speeches from politicians. No tearful reciting of lyrics to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by CBS News anchor Dan Rather, which he used to end his network’s live coverage of Lynch’s homecoming, his voice quivery, the lump in his throat as big as a melon.

No lumps in the throat for those covering Ms. Anonymous, regardless of how this turns out. Even though coming forward about a widely beloved sports icon, and exposing herself to laser scrutiny and scandalous media reporting, may turn out to be as courageous as anything attributed to Jessica Lynch.

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Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be contacted at howard.rosenberg @latimes.com.