An interesting aspect of the Billings murder case is the national media attention. The local news – both WEAR TV 3 and the PNJ – have done a good job of covering the murders. We’ve done our little part but we don’t have the resources to provide the same level of coverage. The PNJ had five people at the 3 pm press conference.
People magazine has a reporter here covering the story. I sat next to her last night at the 8:30 press conference. She wasn’t sure if you could make the deadline to be in next week’s issue, but People is very interested in the story. When I asked her if People normally covers crime stories, she reminded me of the Caylee Anthony stories that they published.
CNN was all over the Billings story last night. Nancy Grace of HLN butchered many of the facts and really played up the 16 children. The only problem is three of the children have died over the years, four are adults living on their own and only nine were actually living in the Billings home.
On CNN, Soledad O’Brien interviewed probably the least informed media person on the killings, 1620AM’s morning host Rob Williams. Neither Williams or anyone from 1620AM attended any of the ECSO press conferences.