Talking Heads

As for the talking head lawyers that often appear, they tend to go to the most ridiculous extremes possible in describing how they would defend the perpetrators if they were hired to do so. It seems that it is no longer about getting a good defense but rather about making up whatever one must to get a client acquited of committing a crime. Is lying something that is guaranteed under our constitution when it comes to getting a fair trial and reasonable representation? All of this time I thought it was about the law and the facts and a jury of one’s peers.

Most of the talking head law enforcement people have a pretty good grasp of how the legal system works and tend to simply state what they have experienced first hand when investigating cases. They do contribute something to the conversation most of the time.

The Psychologists and other mental health workers tend to sound like screeching, sob-sister type newspaper columnists who don’t deal with real people in real life situations but regurgitate information from the DSM-IV. Judy Kuriansky is the one who annoys me the most when she appears on the cable shows. I can understand why real patients with problems would not want to sit in her office receiving therapy because besides having problems of the mental variety, they would leave with a splitting headache after listening to her for a session of psychotherapy.

It seems to me that there are a regular group of talking heads who make the rounds from show to show and apparently it’s how they now earn a living. It also seems to me that they are probably not in great demand outside of these shows in their chosen professions.

As someone who has made a lifetime choice to study criminal justice, forensics and other matters relating to crime, I am often disgusted by what I hear on the shows that claim to be the most up to date and informative. Many times I hear what is simply speculative opinion and even that is based on nothing certain or factual.

I seem to have little choice when it comes to picking and choosing what shows to watch since they all have these panels of talking heads many of whom are on all of the shows at one time or another and often even on the same day.

I can say that I did do some weeding out when it came to the level of annoyance and misinformation I was willing too tolerate. I finally stopped watching Geraldo Rivera who is the most arrogant and know-it-all host of them all.

Hmmmm, I wonder what Dr. Judy Kuriansky or Pat Brown, Profiler, would have to say about him?