What is the meaning of "Trial of the Century"? in Media terms

[recto101]

I think its an overused and overhyped term that HLN, TruTV, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News use to put focus on a high profile trial they like to see like Casey Anthony, OJ Simpson, Barry Bonds.

But Trial of the century can have regional meanings in Los Angeles it can mean OJ Simpson, Conrad Murray, Johannes Mehserele (Oakland also) and the Bell City Government,
In NYC it can mean Bernie Madoff and Amy Fischer.
In Illinois it can mean Rod Blagohevich
and in San Francisco it can mean Barry Bonds, the Prop 8 trial, Yousef Bey and Johannes.

In History books it said "Tennessee Teacher sent to court for teaching evolution back in the 1920's."

I thought Trial of the century must take place in the federal court and must affect lots of people.
Look at Germany after WWII "Trial of the century" meant putting all NAZI officials on trial in Nuremburg and in the Philippines and other third world Countries "Trial of the century meant putting dictators on trial for Genocide."

 

[recto101]

Philippines it means the Andal Ampatuan Trial a genocide that aired in the Philippine media in November 2009 when US media were covering Tiger woods scandal.

 

[quadraphonic]

"Trial of the century" is like everything the news does these days: just hype.
It occurred near the beginning of the century, and it's the most recent one they are talking about, so it's "the trial of the century" because the next one is always bigger than the last one.
Plus, most media outlets probably already have the graphics package done up from the last one, all it takes is for some interns to insert different names and locations here and there.

 

[LKellerIII]

Didn't somebody else start a thread recently to complain about the over-use of "national tragedy?' All these phrases get into the popular vernacular, stick like glue and get over-used until they fade from fashion. Yes - they're overused by the media, but also by regular people, too.

Same with words. Has anybody else noticed that the word "horrifying" is making a big comeback? All of a sudden, in news or on entertainment TV, everything is 'horrifying.' I guess it's replacing "horrific." "My bad" was huge for awhile, and is now fading a bit. The one that annoys me is "yeah-no." You're talking to somebody and they respond to you with "yeah, no." What's that all about? Is it yes or no? Make up your mind.

All these words and phrases are just verbal crutches - we might as well get used to it.

 

[Markxxx]

Don't forget the newspaper era and "Leopold and Loeb" and "The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping" were also called the trial of the century.

 

[therealjm12]

The trial & conviction of Chester Gillette for the murder of Grace Brown in 1906. The murder took place on Big Moose Lake and trial in Herkimer, N. Y. The book AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY and later the film A Place In the Sun starring Elizabeth Tayor, Shelly Winters & Montgomery Cliff were based on the murder. I think that may have been the birth of the term Trial of the Century by the media. Gillette was given the electric chair a few years later in Auburn.

 

[recto101]

I watched HLN and they said that Casey Anhony is the Biggest Trial of the century. But I live in California and I never payed any attention to her yes she is big in Florida. In California where I live the Prop 8 Trial in SF and the Johannes Mesherle Oakland and LA were the biggest trials of 2010 and they affected me more than Casey Anthony ever was. Also Barry Bonds was the biggest trial that the MLB and SF Giants went through prior to the Brian Stow beatings. I never hear of Anthony until TruTV and HLN looked into it. But I do agree that "Trial of the Century" has a Harold Camping type scare to it.

 

[arnoldevns]

I simply don't understand the national media's fascination with this case. Sadly, a mother killing a child is not all that uncommon. Why this case is national news I'll never know.

 

[recto101]

I simply don't understand the national media's fascination with this case. Sadly, a mother killing a child is not all that uncommon. Why this case is national news I'll never know.

I remember back in 2003-2004 when Nancy Grace was a local host on KNEW 910 AM in SF and other Clear Channel Stations in CA. before HLN she said that Scott Peterson was the "Trial of the Century" the co-host Chris Felippe now at KCBS 106.9 FM and 740 AM was the saner of the two at the time. while PBS, and BBC said that Saddam Hussein was the "Trial of the Century"
Nancy Grace was Criticized for acting like Camping even as far back as 2004. I think Jeff Bell at KCBS was also working for clear Channel at KFBK Sacramento. as an anchor from 2000 to 2004 before landing at KCBS.

 

[firepoint525]

Anyone here remember the (snow)"storm of the century"? It was March 1993 here in the southeastern U.S. A freak late winter snowstorm dumped up to six inches of snow along the I-24 corridor. Where I-24 ended, it just continued down the I-75 corridor to Atlanta. This snow storm was so hyped by the media that it was lampooned on Saturday Night Live. Chris Farley played the "storm." Clarksville, Tennessee, where I was living at the time, was scheduled to be pummeled by this storm, but instead, got merely a dusting.

My advice is, if you hear "of the century" tagged on to any media event, is to turn the channel. Because your intelligence is about to be insulted.

 

[recto101]

Anyone here remember the (snow)"storm of the century"? It was March 1993 here in the southeastern U.S. A freak late winter snowstorm dumped up to six inches of snow along the I-24 corridor. Where I-24 ended, it just continued down the I-75 corridor to Atlanta. This snow storm was so hyped by the media that it was lampooned on Saturday Night Live. Chris Farley played the "storm." Clarksville, Tennessee, where I was living at the time, was scheduled to be pummeled by this storm, but instead, got merely a dusting.

My advice is, if you hear "of the century" tagged on to any media event, is to turn the channel. Because your intelligence is about to be insulted.

Every Snow Storm is the biggest one of the century according to CNN and HLN but thats too Harold Camping like. in the Bay Area or LA in Local TV news I never hear about Fire of the century in the summer time. I hear as Biggest fire of the year or the month thats about it. or Trial of the year like when Prop 8 writers and lobbiyists went to court or Johannes Mesherle went to cout it was lableled as Trial of 2010.

 

[bpatrick]

Anyone here remember the (snow)"storm of the century"? It was March 1993 here in the southeastern U.S. A freak late winter snowstorm dumped up to six inches of snow along the I-24 corridor. Where I-24 ended, it just continued down the I-75 corridor to Atlanta. This snow storm was so hyped by the media that it was lampooned on Saturday Night Live. Chris Farley played the "storm." Clarksville, Tennessee, where I was living at the time, was scheduled to be pummeled by this storm, but instead, got merely a dusting.

My advice is, if you hear "of the century" tagged on to any media event, is to turn the channel. Because your intelligence is about to be insulted.

Except for one and it never happened: if Lee Harvey Oswald had lived to stand trial for the murder of JFK. I have always questioned whether Oswald could have even gotten a fair trial; in 1963 assassinating a President was not a federal crime, so Oswald would have been tried in a state court in Texas. Could he have gotten a fair trial? And even if he had been tried in a federal court, could he have gotten a fair trial? (After all, the mass media--other than newspapers--did not exist when Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley were assassinated.) We'll never know, of course, but assuming he had gone to trial the murder of a President has to rank in the category of "trial of the century." (BTW, for those who may be wondering, only one British Prime Minister has ever been assassinated: Spencer Percival, and that was in the nineteenth century.)

 

[Bob1370]

"Trial of the Century" really means "the big trial of the most notorious defendant of the moment, that we can carry at least parts of live every day, build a nightly prime time highlight and comment show around, and hype like hell to build ratings and pull in extra ad money."

In reality, nothing qualified in the 19th century but the Andersonville war crimes trial, and in the 20th, the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi kingpins in 1946. Neither one, clearly, was heavily covered by media although each became the subject of either a critically praised stage drama (The Andersonville Trial, later adapted for TV by CBS) or an acclaimed film (Judgment at Nuremberg with Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster, 1961). If Bin Laden had been brought back alive and tried in Federal District Court in Manhattan that would have been the trial of the 21st Century, but that one was cancelled when the Navy SEALS conducted the swiftest of possible trials away from the TV cameras.

 

[KERCAlum]

"The [anything] of the century" is nothing more than hype designed to draw in viewers and sell ads for Viagra and attorneys. The lame-stream media believes that its viewers/readers/listeners are all doofuses who believe anything they're told. (In some instances, that's true.) So they blow things out of proportion in order to bring eyeballs to the TV and boost their ratings.

Newton Minnow was right.

 

[recto101]

"The [anything] of the century" is nothing more than hype designed to draw in viewers and sell ads for Viagra and attorneys. The lame-stream media believes that its viewers/readers/listeners are all doofuses who believe anything they're told. (In some instances, that's true.) So they blow things out of proportion in order to bring eyeballs to the TV and boost their ratings.

Newton Minnow was right.

I remember in 2006-2008 there was a trial called the "Phil Spector Trial" this was when HLN and TruTV were under different names like CourtTV and Headline News but TMZ was coming into play at this point and they said "Phil Spector Trial of the century" I never heard of Phil Spector. but they said he killed his girlfriend in Brentwood, CA. This sounded like the OJ Simpson case where the Cable outlets CNN, HLN and TruTV (then CourtTV) said "Brentwood, CA" as in the LA district not the city east of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County. I noticed that not even the Local LA TV station covered this story as much because they went to Sacramento to cover Schwartzeneggers budget crisis, Wildfires on the Hills near San Fernando Valley, and Shootings on the poor districts in LA. HLN TruTV told the viewers that Spector was a record producer. Still I never heard of him before the trial took place or why it became front page headlines like Paris Hilton or Lohans arrests.

 

[anotherguyTN]

How do you determine that something is the "____ of the century" when we're only a little over 10 years into it? We still have 90 years to go.  :

 

[recto101]

Now as of 2012 George Zimmerman has over took Casey Anthony for "Most hated person in Florida." Also the Florida and the National Media will label the George Zimmerman trial as "trial of the century."
George Zimmerman was Bailed out yesterday that makes him even more hated than Casey Anthony and also fear in Florida that this trial will be worse than the "Rodney King Riots in LA" or the "Oscar Grant Riots" were in Oakland due to racial tension between the Hispanic and Black Community in Florida. I do remember in Local LA media the Rodney King riots not only was based on racial tension between blacks and whites but also blacks and Koreans on South Central LA.

 

[onairb]

Now as of 2012 George Zimmerman has over took Casey Anthony for "Most hated person in Florida." Also the Florida and the National Media will label the George Zimmerman trial as "trial of the century."
George Zimmerman was Bailed out yesterday that makes him even more hated than Casey Anthony and also fear in Florida that this trial will be worse than the "Rodney King Riots in LA" or the "Oscar Grant Riots" were in Oakland due to racial tension between the Hispanic and Black Community in Florida. I do remember in Local LA media the Rodney King riots not only was based on racial tension between blacks and whites but also blacks and Koreans on South Central LA.

Zimmerman, Casey Anthony, Terri Schiavo, Elian Gonzalez, Katherine Harris, OJ searching for 'the real killer' on golf courses...thousands, if not millions of people who insist on re-building in hurricane zones...every time something stupid happens in Florida, it gets saturation coverage in the national media.
[EDIT] Just get out of the news for one day.



[EDIT-disruption]

 

[recto101]

Now as of 2012 George Zimmerman has over took Casey Anthony for "Most hated person in Florida." Also the Florida and the National Media will label the George Zimmerman trial as "trial of the century."
George Zimmerman was Bailed out yesterday that makes him even more hated than Casey Anthony and also fear in Florida that this trial will be worse than the "Rodney King Riots in LA" or the "Oscar Grant Riots" were in Oakland due to racial tension between the Hispanic and Black Community in Florida. I do remember in Local LA media the Rodney King riots not only was based on racial tension between blacks and whites but also blacks and Koreans on South Central LA.

Zimmerman, Casey Anthony, Terri Schiavo, Elian Gonzalez, Katherine Harris, OJ searching for 'the real killer' on golf courses...thousands, if not millions of people who insist on re-building in hurricane zones...every time something stupid happens in Florida, it gets saturation coverage in the national media.
[EDIT] Just get out of the news for one day.



[EDIT-disruption]

I forgot the other 2 examples that will get the label Trial of the century. The Norway shooter and terrorist accused of genocide at a camp and a Norway federal building and the Oikos Shootings in Oakland.

 

[onairb]

Now as of 2012 George Zimmerman has over took Casey Anthony for "Most hated person in Florida." Also the Florida and the National Media will label the George Zimmerman trial as "trial of the century."
George Zimmerman was Bailed out yesterday that makes him even more hated than Casey Anthony and also fear in Florida that this trial will be worse than the "Rodney King Riots in LA" or the "Oscar Grant Riots" were in Oakland due to racial tension between the Hispanic and Black Community in Florida. I do remember in Local LA media the Rodney King riots not only was based on racial tension between blacks and whites but also blacks and Koreans on South Central LA.

Zimmerman, Casey Anthony, Terri Schiavo, Elian Gonzalez, Katherine Harris, OJ searching for 'the real killer' on golf courses...thousands, if not millions of people who insist on re-building in hurricane zones...every time something stupid happens in Florida, it gets saturation coverage in the national media.
[EDIT] Just get out of the news for one day.



[EDIT-disruption]

Flori-duh. I said it. It's true.