Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [54]
On Sunday, Wise said, “A few questions were submitted by the police in writing that are housekeeping questions. They go to, “When is the milk delivered to your house? How many times has Federal Express delivered a package?”
—Charlie Brennan and John C. Ensslin
Rocky Mountain News, January 6, 1997
On January 6, the police department notified the local press that Chief Koby would discuss the Ramsey investigation on January 9. It would be a roundtable discussion. Koby selected reporters that he had worked with before—all of whom would still be working there after the sensation died down. “The rest of the press will be going on to their next firefight,” Koby said. Boulder’s city-owned TV Channel 8 would broadcast the event.
Koby wanted to speak directly to Boulder’s residents and to respond to the questions he believed should be answered. He wasn’t interested in Dan Rather or some other media star shouting questions at him, and he didn’t want his words filtered through the press.
Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin McCullen was named one of the roundtable invitees. Immediately he was bombarded with calls from all three TV networks for on-air interviews before and after Koby’s telecast. That was when McCullen realized that JonBenét’s murder was more than just a Boulder story. Joining McCullen would be Ron Baird of the Colorado Daily, Alli Krupski of the Daily Camera, The Denver Post’s Mike McPhee, and Jim Burrus, managing editor of the Boulder Planet.
That same day, January 6, was the first day of school after the Christmas break. TV news trucks would be parked in front of JonBenét’s school for days, and Charles Elbot, the principal, had hired security people to make sure that the reporters hung back and didn’t frighten the children by shoving microphones into their faces.
That morning, before school opened, Elbot and several teachers checked the halls to make sure that none of JonBenét’s artwork or poetry was displayed where a reporter could grab it.
Elbot held an assembly before classes began. He was straightforward with the children. “In life,” he said, “difficult things happen, and part of the challenge we’re left with is not only trying to find our own way through the difficulty but to help others.”
During recess that day, Elbot walked around to see how the students were doing. A second grade girl came up to him and said, “If I died, no one would care.”
“What do you mean?” Elbot asked.
“You know. If I die, there wouldn’t be all these people around—there wouldn’t be all this fuss.”
“If something happened to you, I would care and your parents would care and your friends would care,” Elbot replied.
“Yeah, but all the people…the world wouldn’t care.”
“That’s not true.”
“The reason people care about JonBenét is because she was rich, and pretty, and things like that.”
It struck me, listening to this child, how much of her self-worth was affected by the media attention to this story. I suppose if you grow up with TV, then what’s important is what the media says is important. And the question is how deeply self-worth is influenced by that. To that little girl, being noticed or ignored by the media was more powerful than the attention of significant people in her life.
The next day, a teacher ran into my office. A Japanese TV crew was on the playground and starting to interview the kids. A local crew had told them it wasn’t right, but the producer ignored them.
I put a stop to it. I asked the two Japanese producers to come to my office, then I called the police. Two hours went by and the police didn’t show up, so the producers left. The tabloids called. I was offered money to appear on talk shows. I found reporters walking around the halls of the school and had to escort them out.
When the media throws this spotlight on you, the appearance of things begins to change. Instead of giving you a clearer picture, the media transforms the situation. This little girl’s death became so much more complicated because of the impact of the media. It seems that respect for people’s lives, a certain level of common