by Michael Tracey Postscript In November 2007, just as I was finishing a draft of this essay I was talking to a television executive during a visit to London. He asked if there […]
Meanings, pt. 4: an awful, dark year
by Michael Tracey In his essay, “The White Negro,” Norman Mailer references Marxist thought with a level of respect but pointed to its failure in application because, as he put it, “it […]
Meanings, pt. 3: public service

by Michael Tracey Let me return to a period which is widely regarded within the advanced industrial societies as a high water mark of public service broadcasting, the BBC in the early […]
Meanings, pt. 1: Post-OJ America
by Michael Tracey “Everything’s got a moral, if only you can find it.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland So on to the really interesting part: what has it all meant, what […]
Daxis, pt. 3: snake on a plane
by Michael Tracey There had earlier been another development that caught the attention of the local US intelligence services based in the embassy. In July Daxis had told me that he had […]
Daxis, pt. 2: Bangkok
by Michael Tracey In the spring of 2006 one email caught my attention. Daxis had been demanding that I provide him with contact details for Patsy, an email address and a phone […]
Daxis, pt. 1: son of the Devil
by Michael Tracey “O hateful error, melancholy’s child! Why dost thou show, to the apt thoughts of men, The things that are not?” – (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ib, 67) Then something strange […]
JonBenet, pt. 3: time to wake up, Professor Tracey

by Michael Tracey In the mid-1980s David Mills had tried to get a budget together to make a documentary based on my work on public broadcasting, making the case that market forces […]
JonBenet, pt. 1: the establishment of a narrative

by Michael Tracey SHE pass’d away like morning dew Before the sun was high; So brief her time, she scarcely knew The meaning of a sigh. As round the rose its soft […]
From Christmas to August: Prologue

AN ESSAY ON MURDER, MEDIA MAYHEM AND THE CONDITION OF THE CULTURE by Michael Tracey FOR PATSY RAMSEY, SHERRY KEENE-OSBORNE, and BARB SMITH Courageous and Good Ladies All Oft in the stilly […]