“The Hyperreal and the Imaginary”: The Satanic Panic as Infotainment

Abstract

Chapter 3 provides an overview of the panic through the lens of the McMartin preschool trial in Manhattan Beach, California, which was the longest and costliest criminal trial in American history. The chapter examines how McMartin, as well as several other similar ritual abuse cases that followed, unfolded through tabloid sources, particularly on television. The chapter argues that those involved in ritual abuse cases cycled into and out of courtrooms, news reports, and documentary specials, collapsing distinctions between reality and media representations. Panic participants, including journalists and reporters, began to fulfill prescribed media roles, from vigilante heroes and demonic villains to indoctrinated victims. It became potentially impossible for jurors to see that tabloid sources might use guilty verdicts to promote their own credibility, as well as that of the panic.