Page 61 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

52 Christina Spiesel

extremely potent and limited nature, we need a sophisticated theory of
media effects in what might appear to be the realistic medium of tasercam
video. This discussion is centered on American legal culture.

INTRODUCTION

Elie Wiesel, who lost both his foundation and his personal fortune to
financier Bernard Madoff‘s Ponzi scheme, [ABC News] was asked how he
would like to see the scam artist punished. Wiesel answered: "I would like him
to be in a solitary cell with only a screen, and on that screen for at least five
years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his
victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, 'Look
what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child,
look what you have done,' nothing else" [ Chicago Tribune]. This is a curious
panopticon – the jailer sees to it that the incarceree must see, all the time, the
eyes of the victims confronting the evildoer. He becomes the central observer
of a unique show, not himself pinned by the surveillant gaze of a central prison
authority but instead trapped in a private exhibition constructed just for him of
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pictures intended to evoke memories of a wounded collective of victims. One
problem with this punishment is that we cannot be sure that it actually would
be one. Wiesel wants to remind Madoff that his acts had consequences but if
Madoff is as sociopathic as his acts would suggest, it is equally possible that
he would find the pictures a source of perverse pleasure, reminding him, while
incarcerated, of his abundant successes, making the pictures ―trophies‖ of bad
acts to be delectated over, a customized pornography not unlike the collections
of victim‘s personal belongings made by some serial offenders. For instance,
news reports of the arrest of Philip Markoff for killing a young woman
offering massage services on Craig‘s List made sure to note early on that he
collected panties from the victims [Netter], conforming him to previously
existing stereotypes of compulsive killers.
Wiesel betrays a naïve belief in the realistic power of photographs -- that
his picture gallery will communicate ―see these victims‖ to its audience,
Bernie Madoff, with all that implies to him, Elie Weisel. This in turn depends
upon his belief that these pictures will reveal truths about which we can all

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It is outside the scope of this chapter to discuss the meaning of this suggestion within Wiesel‘s
life and work. Given that he was a Holocaust survivor, and the Nazi regime that carried it
out was obsessed with visual imagery, it is not surprising to this author that he would make
such a suggestion.