WP: Karr coverage one of "greatest media embarrassments in modern history"

[DeepModem Mom]

The JonBenet Fraud
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Will every anchor, correspondent and producer who shamelessly hyped the John Mark Karr story now apologize for taking the country for a ride?

Don't hold your breath.

This was such a sham, from the opening moments, that it instantly goes down with the greatest media embarrassments in modern history.

A strange, creepy character emerges from the shadows of Thailand and says he killed JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago? A guy with no known connection to the family? A yutz whose own relatives, including an ex-wife who hates him, says he wasn't even in Colorado at the time?

This is what produces 25-hour-a-day cable coverage, causes the network morning shows to go nuts and even tops the nightly news two days straight? Aren't the TV types who pumped up this empty balloon just a little bit ashamed?

Oh, and does the New York Daily News run a retraction for its banner headline "SOLVED"?...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html