While most seem to be railing on the media for jumping all over what is now an apparently false confession by John Mark Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey case, Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says that the media doesn’t owe anyone an apology, and reminds people how we got into this mess in the first place:

True, the media went overboard with the rerunning of the kiddie pageant photos and videos that made the story such a sensation from the start. But, no matter what readers and viewers claim about being repulsed, bored or ambivalent, the media make their money by responding to what the public is interested in, as well as what’s in the public interest.

Let’s not forget, it was also the media that reported complications such as Karr’s ex-wife saying the guy was nowhere near Boulder, Colo., on the night of the crime and how DNA tests would be needed to sew up the case. Read the rest… (registration required)

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