CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace received notice Tuesday that she is being sued for helping cause the suicide of a former guest on her show. One day after appearing on Grace’s show and facing a fierce interview about her whereabouts the night her 2-year-old son went missing, Melinda Duckett shot and killed herself. Duckett’s family is now suing Grace for pushing Melinda over the edge with her cutthroat interviewing style. This is ludicrous. Grace’s reputation as a hard-core and callous pundit is wellknown and has given her show a great deal of success. Grace often badgers her guests ruthlessly and forces them to answer questions they would rather ignore. While her interviewing style is a cheap journalistic trick designed to garner ratings, this time she may have had reason to pursue Duckett as hard as she did. Duckett has since been named the prime suspect by the Orlando, Fla., police department in her son Trevor’s disappearance. Trevor may be dead, and his mother gave no indication of where she was at the time he went missing, although she was the last known person to have seen Trevor alive. Duckett’s suicide is a tragic affair, but it is morally wrong for her family to blame Grace for playing a hand in her death. Duckett should have known what she would face when she agreed to go on Grace’s show. Only Duckett knows why she felt it necessary to end her life, and speculating on her reasons for suicide can do nothing but create further heartache for everyone involved. Her family’s lawsuit only makes the horror of losing a toddler even worse because it looks as though the Duckett family is trying to make money off the death of their daughter and the disappearance of Trevor. Today’s society has become far too litigious, and filing a lawsuit has lost the reputation it once had of righting a wrong and giving even the most unfortunate people a fair place to voice their grievances. It has become a cheap means to a financial end, and justice and fairness have given way to sloth and greed.
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