10-19-09 Today's News (No Discussion, Please)

Casey Anthony, Balloon Boy, 'Jon & Kate Plus 8': Children as props

posted by halboedeker on Oct 19, 2009 11:55:00 AM

Ah, Balloon Boy: You floated into our lives and reminded us how some people have media sickness.

These misguided fools will do just about anything to get attention. Richard and Mayumi Heene are two of the biggest fools. They used their 6-year-old son, Falcon, to launch a balloon stunt in hopes of landing a reality show. How did they ever think they could get away with it?

On "The View" this morning, Joy Behar called it "the biggest PR stunt since Liza Minnelli's wedding."

On CNN yesterday, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said the "ridiculous stunt" was bad enough, "but then to subject your family to being part of it is really just perverse in the extreme."

Toobin dubbed Richard Heene's desire for a show "the Jon and Kate Syndrome" for "those who want to be on TV too much."

Jon and Kate Gosselin wanted to be on TV so much that they were happy to use their children as props in "Jon & Kate Plus 8." Now their marriage is kaput, their show is on life support, and they've been held up to widespread ridicule.

The Heenes brought their children into their scam, then enrolled them in a media blitz. But children have a hard time lying. Little Falcon let the secret slip on CNN and threw up on NBC's "Today." And now the Heene parents have been held up to ridicule.

Children don't even have to be alive to become props in a media circus. Young Caylee Anthony's face keeps popping up as the dead girl's family shares her image on national television.

It's one reason that grandparents George and Cindy Anthony have enraged many observers. The Caylee footage plays as the Anthonys do interviews supporting daughter Casey, who is charged with Caylee's murder.

Some things should be sacred, such as the likeness of a young crime victim. But not for the Anthonys. As a reader named Marcie just wrote, "Caylee is no longer a child. She's a brand."

This thirst to be in the media spotlight isn't new. Stage mothers of old would do just about anything to win fame for their children.

Yet the situation is worse today. As as the media proliferate, media sickness is spreading.

The only way to stem it: Shaming the sufferers of Jon and Kate Syndrome. It's one way to protect children from the madness of being reduced to props.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2009/10/casey-anthony-balloon-boy-jon-kate-plus-8-children-as-props-.html

Docs: Baez, P.I. Disagreed On Payment

POSTED: Monday, October 19, 2009
UPDATED: 7:25 pm EDT October 19, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Newly released documents in the Casey Anthony case show that a former private investigator for the defense and defense attorney Jose Baez had a falling out over money.

VIDEO: New Sworn Statement

The defense team hired private investigator Dominic Casey around two weeks after Anthony was arrested last summer.

Casey now works for Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, but when Baez hired him, the two had a written agreement.

In a sworn statement, Casey said Baez agreed to pay him "contingent on necessary funds becoming available."

Casey believed he would be paid if and when Baez was paid. When a spokesman for Baez announced the defense team had received funds from an anonymous donor several months later, Casey assumed he would be paid. Casey said Baez told him he had been working for free.

Casey filed a formal bar complaint against Baez several months ago, alleging that the defense attorney told him not to call authorities if he found Caylee Anthony's remains during a search for the toddler. Casey said Baez told him to walk away, call the attorney, and not tell anyone else about what he found.

The Florida Bar investigated those allegations against Baez, but found no evidence of wrongdoing and Baez was cleared.

Anthony told investigators she left Caylee with a baby sitter named Zenaida Gonzalez, a woman with the same name is suing Anthony for defamation.

Casey has claimed that his work for the defense protects him from answering questions in the civil case against Anthony, but attorneys representing Gonzalez could use the sworn statement to show that Casey ended his relationship with the defense team early on and should be forced to answer their questions.

Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee.

Caylee was 2 when she was reported missing in July 2008, one month after she was last seen alive. Her remains were found in a wooded area near the Anthony family's east Orange County home in December.

Anthony is currently being held at the Orange County Jail on no bond pending her trial. She could face the death penalty if convicted.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/21341783/detail.html