~ The Climbing Monkey ~ His Politics, Law and Culture: Banfield, Court TV, Spector and Murder by 'F' Word

Friday, April 27, 2007

Banfield, Court TV, Spector and Murder by 'F' Word

I have just finished watching Ms. Ashley Banfield anchoring her Court T.V. show 'Banfield & Ford,' which is covering Phil Spector's trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson. For all young folks aspiring to television anchor-hood she is a very good example of a bad example.

Can anyone tell me why Ms. Ahsley Banfield, Court T.V.'s co-host of "Banfield and Ford" feels some need to keep reminding us that she is not a lawyer?

Why tell us her non-lawyerly status and omit to mention that she is also not intelligent, perceptive or worldly? Why doesn't she just, flat-out, state that she's incompetent to host a show on the legal system?

I suppose she does not remind us of those other items on her curriculum vitae since they are so glaringly apparent from fifteen minutes of listening to her.

Phil Spector - a gnarly looking little beast of a man - is a particularly unattractive individual. According to statements in court documents and in various interviews Spector has given, he is also in love with himself and in love with the "F-word." [See: Masters & Johnson re: intercourse.]

Thus far in today's trial Ms. Ashley has railed against Spector's bad language. She has posted the number of times Spector said the 'F-bomb' [as she calls it] at his house and - separately - listed the number of times he said it at the police station.

This, to Ms. Ashley, is prima facie evidence of Spector's guilt. It is not. It is, however, incontrovertible evidence that Mr. Spector uses the 'F-word' when he is drunk and furious.

Ms. Ashley reminds me of a woman I met many years ago in community theatre. Her father had been a singer on the old "Mitch Miller" television show. He had, according to her, not only never used bad language -- but, in fact, his generation did not know those words.

"And," said I to her, "where do you think my generation got them? Do you think the younger folks of today invented the 'F-word' among others? No - we inherited those words from, among others, folks like Geoffrey Chaucer."

Whether Ms. Ashley likes it or not, that language is a part of our linguistic legacy. However, there are some words in current use today which are not part of our legacy. One such word is 'bomb.' As in, to quote Ms. Ashley during today's report, when wishing a good future to departing Court TV anchor Katherine Crier, "Catherine - you're the bomb." [See: American Idol; Randy Jackson. Then, please tell me if Ms. Ashley thinks Catherine Crier is a great lounge singer.]

Ms. Ashley also appears obsessed with how 'normal' people react when confronted with socially awkward situations involving the newly dead.

Apparently - and according to various statements in police reports which Ms. Ashley read, in part, Mr. Spector denied he had killed Ms. Clarkson.

I paraphrase Ms. Banfield's response to those denials of guilt: "What do you expect? Who is going to admit to murder? I watch cop shows on television. People don't just admit to murder. Of course he's going to deny it."

To which a guest attorney replied [and again I paraphrase], "Well, actually, about eighty-five per cent of perpetrators found at the murder scene or taken to the police station, spontaneously confess to the murder they've committed."

After Ms. Banfield's metaphorical indictment of Spector for 'Murder By Cuss Word,' and her rambling about her immense knowledge of human behavior based on 'Dragnet' viewings, she then started to talk with attorney Beth Karas, a Court T.V. correspondent, who is covering the trial.

Both women appeared on split screen. Ms. Banfield immediately went into another ridiculous rant.

Attorney Karas kept trying to speak. Ms. Banfield kept voiding her own brain. Finally Karas rolled her eyes and stared up and off into the distance.

Now - I know I'm about to go for a 'stretch' here with my observation on human nature and behavior. BUT, unlike Ms. Banfield, my interpretation of Ms. Karas's eye-roll cum thousand mile stare, is not based on watching COPS on television.

It is based on my mother. If my mother's eyes responded to Ms. Banfield's ramblings as did Ms. Karas's eyes, the message would have been very clear:

"Shut up, Ashley - please?! For the love of God will you please shut your mouth!"

1 comment:

bev. said...: you da bomb, man!; April 27, 2007 at 6:26 PM

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Hey! If You Have Nothing To Hide - What Do You Care About Cameras and Searches?

I'm sure you've heard statements like the following: "Hey, if the cops want to search my house, I have nothing to hide."
or "I'd let the cops search my car - anyone who would not, must have something to hide." And lately - especially in the United Kingdom - where the country has more government sponsored closed circuit police-monitoried television cameras viewing citizens in public areas than do all the combined countries of Europe - we have heard, "What do you care if the police are watching you on gazillions of cameras? If you're not committing a crime, what difference does it make?" Well - the problem with all these statements is this: If you give an inch to a police-type of organization - they will, GUARANTEED, take a mile! Yes - It is possible that the closed circuit television cameras used by British police may help capture the car-bomb terrorists being sought during this past week. But - you may not have heard of the 'Trash Terrorists' of Britain. Ahh yesss....these are evil people. They are so evil that the British authorities are making absolutely sure that THESE people are definitely caught on videotape - and not just caught, like terrorists, by accident. Britain, like many small socialist towns in the states, has very specific rules about putting out trash and recycling, etc. However, in some neighborhoods in Britain, you are only allowed to put out trash during a four hour block of time. If you are a half-hour early - you might get fined. If you put it out later, you might get fined. The British authorities at the local level didn't like the fact these criminals only 'might' get caught. They wanted guarantees. Well - now, in a pilot program - small, remote cameras are placed in 'dummy' trash containers on the sidewalk. These are used to identify the people putting out trash and the time of placement. The program is a marvel!! These hardened criminals who thought nothing of putting out trash a few minutes early so as to get to work on time are now paying their debts to society! Their faces are identified and they are punished fully, thoroughly, and to the great satisfaction of the little, pebble-brained control freaks who find their natural ecological niche when they get appointed to a neighborhood committee that gives them 'power.' Beware, my friends. You may always think you have nothing to hide. But just wait until the definition of what is 'forbidden' starts to include behavior that you consider 'normal.' ~ J. A.

The Fairness Doctrine - Affirmative Action for Kennedy, Kerry & Stewart Smalley

I'm sorry about this - but I'm just galled by the growing crowd of losers who suddenly want to stop free speech. Lest we forget, Stewart Smalley and Garofalo, et al, had their own nationwide talk radio show for several months. They had a lot of financing to get it off the ground. It was carried in quite a few major markets. One fact lost in all this discussion is that the Flagship Station for Air America took over the tuning slot for a station which had broadcast Caribbean Calypso style music twenty-four hours a day. To me, Calypso music is like American Country-Western tunes: There are about three different variations on one song that are repeated ad infinitum. Anyway - Air America received many front page and inside page articles full of free publicity in the New York Times. It got tons more of ancillary coverage as news outlets covered their progress - and ultimately - their seismic collapse. After tons of favorable 'puff' articles and lots of promotional appearances the result was this: In New York City - the capital of wealthy Manhattanite liberals - the ratings for Air America were lower than they had been for 24/7 Calypso programming at the same spot on the dial. They were given a great chance. They blew it. They can try again. But, for the government to consider ramming these boring clowns down our throats [violating the First Amendment] at the same time they are trying to legalize illegal behavior by foreign nationls - just makes me wonder if any of these fools have read the Constitution that they swore to uphold and defend. The legislators have confused the public airwaves with the public schools. It is the JOB of the public schools to fill the heads of young people with ideas, facts and concepts that they find to be quite boring. They find it to be so, because their gonads are developed way beyond their brains. However, once the balls, boobs and brains have achieved a balance and parity [i.e. by about the age of thirty] we should be able to judge for ourselves the information whether the information we choose to hear is boring but useful or - like the product of 'Air America,' boring, useless and usually false. ~ J. A.

Stop Conservative Talk Radio!!! It's Giving Too Many People Ideas!!!

What do Senators Trent Lott, Diane Feinstein and the Hon. Janine Garofalo all share in common? They do not understand, nor like, the market place of ideas. If people exchange ideas [free speech] they might write to the government representatives [petition for action or redress] and invoke their rights to voice their constituent opinion on issues of great national importance. This will cause great inconvenience to the plutocrats in Washington. It means that they, in turn, must explain and defend their proposed actions. It means they must find a powerful constituency in favor of their latest fantasy legislation. Worst of all, talk radio encourages discussion and debate. It gives the citizen a sense of connection to the governmental and societal processes we hold dear. Feinstein and Co., are upset because a 'few' cherry-picked provisions of the bill make it sound bad. In that, they are correct...And why? Because those cherry-picked items [Senator Jeff Sessions posted a list of 20 such items on his web page] are indeed, absolutely terrible. The people who have drafted this bill are thrilled with themselves because they got themselves to agree on 'anything.' They regard the assuaging of their massive egos into a collective hodge-podge of legi-crap to be a major achievement. What their egos cannot tolerate, is outside opposition to the fruits of this legislative conference committee that has achieved about as much as a Sensitivity Training Group from the sixties might have hoped to accomplish. The fact that a bunch of conceited ego-maniacs consider it an achievement just to agree on anything does not, ipso facto make such an agreement good. It just means that - on their kindergarten report card - it can be stated that - for this one brief Camelotian moment - they played well together and shared their toys. Their reaction to our protests - branding us as bigots and haters - is utterly despicable. They have not only forgotten that they serve the American citizens - they seem to think they are an auxiliary caucus of the Mexican legislature. They have disgraced themselves and brought shame upon their legislative institutions. I can only hope that my small contribution to the debate helps turn the tide against these petulant children whose only real accomplish is to shake hands and to stop 'peeing' on each others' parades for a few days. ~ J. A.

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~ The Climbing Monkey ~ His Politics, Law and Culture

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