JonBenet’s death fell in the valley of silence that is holiday TV. Sports and Christmas carolers, bowl games and warm family programming is the standard holiday fare. Usually dwarfed by Rudolph and Frosty, are local news shows where the anchor shows you the most well lit home, and how to make sugar cookies. The JonBenet story landed in the slowest news period of the year and was quickly picked up by the media. A small child, murdered in her own home on Christmas Day was news. And the footage of JonBenet, dancing, in a pink sequined dress, singing, ”I wanna be a cowboy’s sweetheart,” began to hit the news and was picked up by the tabloid. The media sources, such as The AP, The Globe, the Enquirer, and every other piece of journalism picked up the story and attached every ugly headline they could think of to it. JonBenet would find no mercy with the tabloids and neither would Patsy and John, and the other Ramsey’s, John Andrew and Melinda who both had airtight alibis for that night. There was a student at the nearby University that pasted a montage of photographs and titled it ”Daddy’s Little Hooker” The artist later claimed he was trying to make a statement, but John and Patsy were deeply hurt by the exhibit. John tried to write a letter to the “artist” and wrote him a letter telling him that he hoped as he matured, he’d think twice before putting up such a crass and vulgar display of an innocent child. He received no response, which didn’t surprise him. But the local media and the Ramsey family had made a few enemies in the reporter’s circle. The Boulder police had a very unpleasant surprise in store for them.

The Globe, a tabloid newspaper, obtained autopsy and crime scene photos that were sold to them by one of the paparazzi. The press went completely wild. The DA’s office was beyond indignant and demanded to know who had leaked out the photos. He couldn’t believe his own staff had betrayed him by letting those photos fall into the wrong hands. And he knew that now it was too late, the film had been developed at Photo Craft Laboratories where the pictures were developed by the morgue. A tabloid reporter bribed the clerk who did the developing, and obtained copies of 6 photos of JonBenet. I personally have never seen them, and I don’t want to. It is this kind of so called journalist that makes people wary and distrustful of people who write to educate, to inform, to study. The Globe was the tabloid that bought the photos and plastered them all over the cover. Most people found it gristly and disrespectful, the victim’s age making it even worse. Many places had a boycott, and others sold them in the right of free speech. Those photos, had they been kept confidential, could possibly lead to clues, or even solve the case. The Boulder police were telling tales and sneaking around being the Big Bosses backs, just like they’d been snubbed many a time. There were very strong and unwavering in their judgment of the DA’s office.

The local law enforcement agencies offered to help each other, but by then it was too late and the minimal contributions to the case, were done under hostile conditions. This would make the case harder and harder to solve, and more hardening of the officers involved. The media basically went mad for JonBenet. A 6-year-old beauty queen is kidnapped, molested and murdered in her own home. This was the best kind of tabloid journalism and many the opportunist took advantage by cashing in on the name, Jon Benet. In February 2000, the magazine Brill’s Content, ran a feature called, “JonBenet Inc.” This detailed many of the myths and suspicions that had been circulated since her death. Many of these were later proven to be lies. The reports from the scene of the crime were also misleading. So many people had been inside the house, and the body had been touched by at least 3 people in the Ramsey home, where there were at least 6 people at all times.