TV host goes too far attacking parents

There’s a lot of people in this world I don’t like. The list gets bigger almost every day. If I bothered to keep track, it would probably be in the thousands by now.

Ian Johnson

No person — no matter how unimportant — is exempt from appearing as part of my running tally. That guy who wrapped my burrito poorly that one time? He’s on it. That person who shows too much gums when he or she smiles? He’s or she’s there, too. Those bros who live on the first floor of my apartment building? Oh, their names are in bold.

But occasionally, a person that actually deserves it makes it on to this list.

Few deserve it more than Nancy Grace — well, besides those bros. Grace hosts the most popular news show on CNN Headline News, which always seems to be on whenever I’m looking for something else to watch. She stands by what she believes in and there’s no room for me to fault her for that. She easily has stronger convictions than I do and has made her show an extension of that.

That’s more than I could say. I would probably auction off my vote if I could.

But although Grace has figured out what she believes in, her priorities are a little misguided.

You see, Nancy Grace has a womb.

And she appears to have made it her mission to protect all things that go into or come out of it. Call it her womb-anity. As a mother of twins who are approaching two years of age, child safety is a huge concern for Grace. Her show reflects this.

Monday night, she interviewed a guest who has unfortunately become a well-known person in Michigan. Jennifer Buchanan, the mother of missing 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan and a Monroe resident, appeared on the show and was confronted by Grace about her daughter’s disappearance. Nevaeh went missing in May, but a body was recently found near a river in southeast Michigan, which authorities have since confirmed to be Nevaeh.

This kind of story reminds everyone about the sad reality that children are never 100 percent safe, even in modern society. Nevaeh’s death is an aberration, and whoever was involved with her abduction or death deserves whatever punishment the law allows.

Grace saw things a little bit differently.

The interview, which had the word “exclusive” stamped on the screen in three different places, started off slowly, but picked up once Grace started moving toward her thesis: Buchanan is responsible for her daughter’s disappearance, which means she’s also responsible for her death. The blame stems from Buchanan’s friend, who is a convicted sex offender. For the purposes of the show, the word “sex offender” might as well be replaced with the word “leper.”

“Most mothers that I know have never knowingly exposed their little girl, a 5-year-old little girl, to a sex offender,” she said to the victim’s mother. “So when you say who hasn’t? I for one haven’t. I haven’t.”

It’s not so much what she’s saying that I have a problem with — it’s how it’s being delivered. In a suspected kidnapping, friends and family of the child are always the first group of suspects.

Buchanan would probably admit that knowing the sex offender might have a role in this story, but to call her out as a bad parent on national television simply because of the friends she kept is appalling.

There’s always something that could have been done to prevent tragedies like this one. It’s the easiest thing in the world to look back on what happened and cast judgment on where the parent went wrong. You can always just throw up some innocent portraits of the victims and it will look like you’re defending the kids’ honor.

Finding out whether or not Buchanan could have done something to prevent this accomplishes nothing. By bringing these people on the show, you’re not providing closure, you’re just pointing blame. Maybe if you can expose enough bad parents in the world, you — Grace — will be considered a good parent.

Good or bad parenting aside, just look at Buchanan as a parent. Imagine, less than a week ago, your child who was taken from your home, turned up dead on the side of a riverbank, and the body is so badly decomposed that police don’t even think it’s worth trying to identify her by sight. I bet this is the right time to let them know they’re part of the reason this happened.

If this all seems a little bitter, I apologize. The bros beneath me were up late last night.

Ian Johnson is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at john2806@msu.edu.