Nancy Grace No Stranger to Controversy
Sept. 15, 2006 — -- She ends every show with a warm smile and the words "good night, friend." But anyone who has watched "Nancy Grace" on CNN Headline News knows the 47-year-old former prosecutor has a tongue as sharp as they come.
Now Grace is coming under fire for her confrontational interview with Melinda Duckett, the mother of a missing 2-year-old Florida boy.
Duckett committed suicide a day after taping a phone interview with Grace, during which the talk show host pressed Duckett for details about the case.
"Where were you?" Grace demanded. "Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?"
Grace continued to hammer away after Duckett refused to give direct answers. "Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is Day 12," said Grace.
Though police have focused increasing attention on Duckett's movements prior to her son's disappearance, they stopped short of calling her a suspect. Her family is now holding Grace's show partly responsible for her suicide.
"Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end," said Bill Eubank, Duckett's grandfather. "She and that baby loved each other. She wouldn't hurt a bug."
On ABC's "Good Morning America," Grace was unapologetic.
"If anything, I would suggest that guilt made Melinda Duckett commit suicide," Grace told ABC News' Chris Cuomo. "To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing."
Some media watchdog groups have blasted Grace's actions.
"This was a case of a TV news outlet thinking [that] playing Perry Mason is going to attract ratings," said Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra!, a publication put out by media watcher Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. "Playing detective on TV, I don't think, is justifiable."
Naureckas said shows like "Nancy Grace" blur the line between news and entertainment shows such as "Jerry Springer" and "Jenny Jones." In 1995, a Jenny Jones guest murdered another guest after the two had appeared on an episode called "Same-Sex Secret Crushes."
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