Dateline NBC: The Comic Book Murder...

Network programs such as Dateline NBC, 20/20, and 48 Hours Mystery are often difficult to watch. Because of the murder mystery format some of them have adopted almost full-time now, the shows' various reporters are covering sensationalistic and tabloid-like subject matter. Dateline and 20/20 each have a group of pompous, over-wrought, holier-than-thou reporters who push the stories they cover even further over the top. But all that pales when you're watching one of these shows and you know the person they're covering.

Last night's Dateline NBC was about Michael George, the comic book shop owner from Windber, PA, who is also the owner/manager of the Pittsburgh Comicon. I've known Michael--purely as an acquaintance--for about 15 years now, and I was shocked to hear he was arrested in the unsolved murder of his wife, Barbara, who was killed back in 1990. The two owned and operated a comics shop in Michigan at that point in time. No one was ever arrested for the crime--which looked like a robbery gone wrong, and included the execution-style murder of Barbara George--until last year, when a "cold case" unit reopened the case and arrested George, solely on circumstantial evidence. (The weapon used in the murder was never found.) George was found guilty and awaits sentencing, and there's still a possibility the whole thing will be thrown out. The defense asserts the prosecution didn't prove their case--even though the jury obviously thought otherwise--and the judge in the case had some doubts himself. At the very least, it'll be appealed at some point.

It's not up to me to decide whether or not Michael George did it. The rather surreal thing about this was watching Dateline last night, a program about a murder trial involving someone I know (however slightly). Thankfully, the least histrionic reporter NBC has on the show, Dennis Murphy, covered the story. But it was marred by the producer's choice to do "comic book style" graphics (or what passes for what a news producer and graphic designer THINK are comic book style graphics), and the glee of the son of the police chief, who--like everyone else in the piece--seems to have KNOWN George did it back in 1990. Why he wasn't arrested and prosecuted then would seem to be the real mystery. Actually not so much--the local police force screwed it up, ignoring a crucial interview that places George at the comics shop at the time of the murder (he answered the phone and talked to a regular customer at a time when he was supposedly on his mother's couch sleeping). That gleeful son of the chief, who is now one of the top law enforcement guys in the county and went on and on during the show about how he was winning one for his "old man?" He really did the job his dad should have done in the first place. That's what makes his glee so disturbing. He was making up for his father's incompetence.

I was pretty detached through the whole thing, until they showed the courtroom video of the verdict. George lost it at that point, crying wildly for two whole minutes after the guilty verdict was read. It was then that it hit me: I KNOW this guy. I know him, and I'm watching him in this totally unguarded, anguished moment. When they brought him up to hear the the judge, they had to carry him to the podium. It was painful to watch--far more painful to endure, I'm sure. Testimony said he never cried for his dead wife. Well, he cried when he realized he was going to prison for killing her.

The most disturbing part of the program, though, was the thing that network TV does best (or worst, depending on your point of view): the sheer amount of commercial breaks. I think there were THREE in the first 20 minutes alone. Dateline: NBC: The Comic Book Murder was 2 hours long, with commercials. I think it was actually about 72 minutes long, content-wise.

I found myself wondering, though, if Dateline picked this particular case entirely because of the comic book angle. The Georges could have owned a bait shop, or a Dairy Queen. Comics only fit into the story because George claimed some $30,000 worth of rare books were stolen. But comics are hot right now. They continue to be--finally--assimilated more and more into mainstream pop culture. There isn't a year that goes by without multiple comic book movies (Iron Man last week, The Incredible Hulk in June, and Batman returns in The Dark Knight in July). Was the comic book motif the hook for the producers? The sleaze factor of the show was definitely amped up by the garish graphics. And when it comes to television news programs these days, it's not so much the story you tell, but HOW you tell it.

Comments

[Gary]

Sounds to me like you watched a one-hour version of the show on MSNBC, Mike...when it originally aired it was 2 hours long, and had an actual ending.

[Mike]

It drove me crazy to watch this last night in the middle of the night and they were in the middle of the show (about the time that Ms. Danielyk was about to testify) and then the next shot was of Anne Currie.
"This is Ann Currie. For all of us at nightline, good night."
Good night?
What the heck happened?