As the Casey Anthony Trial was going into what is projected to be its final week, media observers complaining of overload may have hoped that a wayward asteroid fast approaching Earth would help.
The news is that the 55-foot-wide asteroid named Asteroid 2011 MD just missed our planet by 7,500 miles.
An impact with Earth would have surely meant any news of the broadcast of the Casey Anthony Trial Live would have been dwarfed by the news of “Asteroid 2011 MD Hits Earth,” along with millions trying to locate video of the event.
Didn’t happen.
Instead, what we have is the continuation of a pattern this blogger has tried to tell anyone who would or would not listen: people want to know about people. People are voyeurs.
The reason many in traditional media fail to understand modern New Media Economics is because they’re so busy making judgements about what they think news is, they discount what other people want as news. In other words, they don’t know how to or seem to want to, read the market for their media.
Meanwhile, Casey Anthony’s fate will hang in the balance of the anticipated deliberations of the jury. That is, assuming no new surprise finding causes the whole trial to be derailed.
One issue that could have – Casey’s competency to stand trial – came up as a “legal issue” over the weekend, then was no more after it was determined that she was, indeed, mentally “OK” to continue.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll