This document summarizes and analyzes several examples relating to Elisabeth Anker's views on melodrama and its misuse. It discusses how the letter from Mary Ann Mendoza about the death of her son Brandon fits Anker's view of melodrama being abused to oversimplify issues. Mendoza portrays her son and America as victim heroes in response to illegal immigration, but there were many complex factors involved beyond what she addresses. The document also analyzes the Kony 2012 campaign, finding it similarly fell into misconceptions by oversimplifying solutions and issues. It then examines two cases Linda Williams might analyze: the Rodney King beating and OJ Simpson trial, and how the "race card"

1. MELODRAMATIC MEDIA
Through the lens of
Elisabeth Anker and
Linda Williams

2. PART I
“Two examples of media stories that are completely unrelated to 9/11 or
similar themes that seem to you to confirm Anker’s views”

3. ANKER AND 9/11
Elisabeth Anker in her writing Villains, Victims
and Heroes: Melodrama, Media, and September 11
summarizes the way that, essentially, America
became ‘Merica.
Through persuasive and melodramatic rhetoric
and imagery, the United States assumed a new
identity, unified under the idea that the country
itself represented values like freedom and
democracy. The 9/11 attack aimed at these
values, and therefore American citizens must
protect this truth at all costs through retaliation.

4. ANKER: MELODRAMA ABUSED
Scenes like this were flashed repeatedly to the nation.
President Bush in his first address claimed that
“Freedom itself was attacked this morning…”
Anker concluded that “Melodrama, then, is
a discursive practice that makes truth and justice
legible by demarcating a clear
boundary between right and wrong.”
The truth is, 9/11 was a time of confusion that was
not discussed as a result of the melodramatic rhetoric
and images fed to the American public following the
attack. America was portrayed as a victim hero,
charged with the natural duty of fighting the “evil-doers.”
The main problem that arose was total
justification for state and federal action regarding the
attack, and even more detrimental an overall state of
ignorance on the matter.

5. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OUT OF
CONTEXT: THE STORY OF SGT.
BRANDON MENDOZA
In May, 2014, police officer Brandon Mendoza
was killed in a head-on collision.
Driving the car was Raul Silva-Corona, who
upon autopsy showed a BAC of 0.24, three
times above the legal limit.
Silva-Corona was an illegal immigrant. The
mother of sgt. Mendoza, Mary Ann Mendoza,
has spoken out publicly against illegal
immigration as a result, even writing a letter to
President Obama regarding the issue.

6. As a tax paying, law abiding citizen of the United States, I WANT my voice heard on this issue. My son, Sergeant Brandon Mend oza, an officer who
was with the City of Mesa, Arizona police department, was killed in a tragic head on collision on May 12, 2014 by a wrong way driver on our freeways.
This man happened to be an illegal immigrant, was in this country illegally, convicted of previous crimes, no Social Security number, no valid driver's
license BUT he had purchased a vehicle and registered it to drive in Maricopa County Arizona.
I had my son's life STOLEN from me by a man who didn't value his life, was 3X the legal limit drunk, was high on Meth, drove for over 35 miles THE
WRONG WAY on 4 different freeways and had NO BUSINESS BEING IN THIS COUNTRY!!!
The Federal Government knew he, Raul Silva Corona , was an illegal immigrant when he was convicted on crimes in 1994 in Color ado. The prosecutors
were "lenient" on him and several charges were dismissed. When he was convicted of these crimes and 1994 and the government k new he was in the
country illegally, why wasn't he deported? Why are any of these illegal criminals in this country ??
I am furious that the Federal Government allowed this criminal to stay in this country and KILL my son! I have attached sever al articles for you to
PERSONALLY read about my son. He was an Icon with the City of Mesa Police Department. He was instrumental in making life bett er for people of
all walks of life in the park project he took on. He was humble, selfless, worked many hours off the clock helping disadvanta ged children and often
used his own money to do things for the community, including "adopting" children at Christmas to provide them with gifts….out of his own money!!
I have attached numerous articles for you to read about my son. This was not a life that should have been taken so early. The good he was doing in our
community is remarkable, the difference he made in people's lives is amazing and the comfort he brought people in friendship was unmeasurable.
All you have to do is Google " Sgt/Officer Brandon Mendoza" and you will have plenty of reading material about my wonderful son who had just
passed his Sergeant's exam to become a Sgt. The Chief of Police posthumously promoted him during the week of his funeral but that highlight of his
life was stolen from him!!! He was officer of the year last year. Officer of the quarter for the first quarter of 2014. He wa s only 32 years old and had
done more in his life than most of us have done in a lifetime!
I am going to have my voice heard and I want to you to know what my personal feeling is on whether CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT S should
be allowed in this country. I have been DIRECTLY affected by this. I am sure if your life had been affected like mine has bee n, you would have a
different view of this situation. I have lived in Arizona most of my life. My son, Brandon Mendoza, was half Hispanic. It's n ot the color of skin that my
son or I see, it's the person and how they conduct their lives. If you can't enter this country legally then you shouldn't be here. If you commit crimes,
you should pay the time any of us as US Citizens would have to serve. Letting these illegal criminals out of our jails before their time is served and
turning them loose on the streets to commit further crimes and KILL our loved ones is NOT ACCEPTABLE TO ME!! AND it shouldn't be acceptable
to any US Citizen. Mr. President, you don't have the right to make this decision yourself......I have a say, even if it is fo r one moment. Maybe that one
moment will light a spark with another citizen who can then light a candle, who can then light a bonfire, who can then light a city up and so on. My
light has just been lit and I am not going to back down when so many of these illegal immigrants have more rights than we do. My son's death will not
be ignored as another statistic.
I want laws to change that would not allow illegal immigrants to purchase vehicles in our country and register them to drive them in our states
WITHOUT having driver's licenses to drive them legally. How is this happening??? I want laws changed that will force the remo val of illegal
immigrants who break our laws. This man, this repeated law breaker, was allowed to be released and he continued breaking the laws in our country until
what???? UNTIL HE WAS STOPPED BY MY SON IN A HEAD ON COLLISION THAT NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED!!!! HE KILLED
AN OFFICER OF THE LAW AS HIS LAST ACT!!! When are you going to see the flip side to this issue? When will you realize the hur t and pain and
destruction these illegal immigrants who break the law will continue to cause???? Until you live in a state that deals with t his on a daily basis, you will
not understand it.
I want answers that make sense. I want answers from you personally as to why this criminal was allowed to stay in our country until he took my son's
life.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Mendoza
HER LETTER:

7. HOW THIS RELATES TO ANKER
In her letter, Mendora shows herself and her son as a victim of the “criminal immigrants”
illegally residing in the United States. Rhetoric like improper use of capitalization and
punctuation, and addressing her letter as a metaphorical spark, a moment that “will light a
spark with another citizen who can then light a candle, who can then light a bonfire, who
can then light a city up and so on,” are all melodramatic tools to try to polarize the issue
and induce sympathy from others. Like other melodramatic instances like this, it is a call to
action.
The problem with this use of melodrama, as Anker would agree, is the fact that Mrs.
Mendoza is simplifying the subject too much, turning a complicated topic about drunk-driving,
the legal system, unfortunate coincidence, the complexities involved with
alcoholism and alcoholics in general, and illegal immigration into a campaign to demonize
illegal immigration. The fact that she writes a letter to president Obama is dramatic within
itself and compounds her own slightly hysteric, albeit natural, response.
The truth is there are so many other factors to consider in this case, which Mendoza is
subtly regarding and looking past to try to fulfil an alternate agenda, preying on the
sympathies of others through her rhetoric, a similar theme shown in Anker’s claim to
misused melodrama regarding 9/11.

8. MELODRAMA IN KONY 2012
KONY 2012 was an advertisement made
by Invisible Children, Inc. to try to combat
the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), of
which Joseph Kony was the leader.
The Lord’s Resistance Army has been
active from 1987 till the present. Invisible
Children, Inc. was started in 2004 to
combat the use of children in what became
a quasi-Christian cult army.

9. HOW THIS RELATES TO ANKER
In this real life situation, the children being used by the LRA are clearly the victims. As
children, they are pure and innocent, whereas Kony’s abuse of them labels him as the
antichrist. As is customary in melodramatic writing, a person’s actions define them, and
his actions are of the most heinous kind.
On the Invisible Children website tab for Kony 2012, one can see the results of the
campaign. It raised over 16 million dollars in support for Invisible Children, Inc., and
outlines its use of these funds, claiming an “epic victory toward impacting the lives of
those affected by the LRA conflict.” The problem with this campaign, and similar ones of
the day, as Anker might agree, would be that it falls under the common misconception
that throwing money at a social cause like this can actually solve the root issue. One of
the goals of the campaign was to make Kony “a household name,” and it was fairly
successful in this attempt, going viral over Facebook and the video itself getting over 100
million views in less than a week. In reality, the campaign was constructed such that
people had no choice but to take the side of Invisible Children without even watching the
video, but knowing just a few key words about the campaign, being “Kony,” “child
abuse/child soldiers,” “has to stop.” I just summarized the facts that most people heard
and took away from the entire campaign.

10. CONT.
Two years later, however, no one talks about Kony anymore and probably know next
to nothing about the real results, being that Kony was never brought to justice and the
LRA is still in operation. Sure, strides were made to help make this real issue more
aware, and a beneficial program called the Early Warning Network came out of the
campaign. However, an organization like this can fundamentally only do so much to
tackle any international problem. The Early Warning Network put radios in remote
villages in the Congo and the Central African Republic so that these villages can
voluntarily report LRA activity with other villages. But what are they supposed to do to
actually combat this activity, given they actually report the incidences ? They are still
helpless, just helplessly connected. The Kony campaign, with all its hype, resulted in
prevention methods as a solution to a problem that needs more to culminate a
solution. There is nothing wrong with installing methods like this, but the fallacy ends
up being that all the people who heard about the campaign and know the name Kony
think that the problem has been solved completely and appropriately and will most
likely never do anything for it again, either from this misconception or the reality that
another campaign will be met with surprise and cynicism to the fact that the problem
was never really solved.

11. PART II
“Two stories that Williams helps you to analyze”

12. WILLIAMS: MELODRAMA AND
THE RACE CARD
Rodney King pol ice br utal i ty video
O. J. Simpson and The Glove

13. THE “RACE CARD”
Linda Williams observes the benefits to and consequences of not using the
race card. It is important to note however that both of these cases were in the
90s, the O.J. Simpson case just celebrating its 20-year anniversary this summer.
In both cases, the verdict that was given was unjust, a common theme in the
melodrama that Williams analyzes. The disparity lays in how Simpson, who
was actually guilty, used the race card and was acquitted, while Rodney King’s
offenders were guilty and were acquitted because of King’s attorney’s lack of
using the race card. The question: should it be used? Is it unfair at times or
necessary? Is the race card just or unjust, or can it even be simplified to that
extent? Let’s look at some similar cases to try and make a determination.

14. BART POLICE SHOOTING:
OSCAR GRANT
Early on New Year’s Day, 2009, Oscar
Grant, black, was shot in the back by
police officer Johannes Mehserle
outside the “Bay Area Rapid
Transport” train in San Francisco.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary
manslaughter, a two-year sentence that
lasted only 220 days.
Two years later, the movie Fruitvale
Station was released based on the
events.

15. SOME DISTURBING FACTS
The official statement of the investigation was that there was no “nexus to race
that provoked this to happen.” There are many disturbing facts surrounding the
incident: police officers at the scene tried to confiscate the cell phones of those
that taped the incident; Grant was heard, by numerous witnesses, telling his
girlfriend over the phone right before the shooting that “they’re beating us up for
no reason, I’ll call you back,” a clear fallacy to the claim that he resisted arrest;
Mehserle’s famous defense lawyer Michael Rains, who previously defended an
Oakland Raider football player, was paid for by a statewide fund for police; Rains
telling Mehserle to “save those f***ing tears” when he cried on stand at what
Rains apparently thought was an inopportune time to express emotion; and finally,
not one African-American was present on the jury.
The state representative for the NAACP declared that there “was no doubt that
the shooting was criminal.”
Although he was convicted, the controversy, outright scandalous nature of, and
pervasive covering-up of made this case national news.

16. WHEN THE RACE CARD FAILS
The problem with this situation, as Williams might not have assumed, is that
the race card can only work to a certain extent. The District Attorney in the
case had no chance because in real life melodrama, aka the American court
system, sometimes the victim hero is not brought to real justice. The system
itself in this case was too corrupt, not able to be bested by a “superhero”
because in reality, superheroes do not exist. Therefore I would like to claim
that the race card, when it has to be used, only aids the case when the person
the card is representing already has something more powerful to their name,
like in O.J. Simpson’s case the “superstar” card. The defendant, officer
Mehserle, was able to use his “boys in blue” card, the ultimate card in the
courts, to trump the race card in this case, the law itself pulling strings for one
of its own, just like in the Rodney King case.

17. TRAYVON MARTIN
You probably already know about
this one.
On February 26, 2012, 17 year-old
Trayvon Martin, unarmed, was shot
and killed by neighborhood watch
coordinator George Zimmerman.
George Zimmerman was acquitted.
“If I had a son, he would look like
Trayvon” – President Obama

18. THIS ONE’S A LITTLE SLOPPY.
The only piece of substantial evidence in this case was a 9/11 call just before the shooting,
where a voice is heard begging for help. To whose voice it was is still inconclusive, and is
the crux of the ambiguity of this story. With only one voice to be heard, Trayvon Martin
did not get the justice he deserved.
The clear fallacy in Zimmerman’s story is surrounded by a few key facts. For one, he was
not even on duty that night, just riding in his car to the store, and when he communicated
via radio that Martin was running away, they told him to not pursue Martin and did
anyways, armed. Zimmerman however claims that he had no intentions of a confrontation.
The shear ridiculousness of the fact that an unarmed, African-American kid was shot and
murdered, that for some reason none of the partial witness testimony agreed, and that at
the end of the day Trayvon Martin was killed for no reason, makes this case a doozy. It
doesn’t help that Zimmerman was in school in the hopes of becoming a judge, took the law
into his own hands, and exudes typical “God-complex” narcissism.
My favorite response, pictured on the previous slide, is of a statement that the University
of Maryland satirically sent to their entire listserv, saying that “this year, we learned that it is
legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida.”

19. RACE-A POLARIZING ISSUE
Ironically, with so much disputable evidence, there became two distinct support
groups, either for Zimmerman or Martin. The race card was played in this scene,
and as a result, most people chose to side with Martin because it seemed like the
right thing (not racist) thing to do, as well as the fact that Zimmerman’s story
changed frequently and his behavior that night did not match up with his
testimony. Does Zimmerman seem guilty, everything considered? Absolutely. Is he
beyond a reasonable doubt? Not even close. The reason this became such a hot
issue was that Trayvon Martin was a clean-cut, innocent looking, unarmed African
American who represented the stereotypical black person that race-equality-progressive
minds are trying to label as the new stereotype in hopes that it erases
the old stereotypical “thug” look. In essence, to not support Trayvon Martin, right
or wrong, would be to support racist ideas that society is trying to squash out. The
victim hero represented in this case then is this accepted stereotype, the villain
being “good-ol” Southern racism (to be clear I am not racist, I write that last little
bit satirically, being born and raised in the Bible-Belt)… The Zimmerman case
deserved the objective trial that it got, and despite popular belief, as the facts stand,
there is no clear evidence as to whether or not Zimmerman maliciously committed
this crime. Just like real research, stay objective my friends and look at the facts
with an open mind.

20. PART III
“Two stories or issues where you think a melodramatic approach to journalism
might be justified (again, avoiding 9/11 related themes)”

21. MR. KELLY THOMAS
On the night of July 5, 2011, outside
the Slidebar (a bar) in Fullerton, CA,
Mr. Kelly Thomas, a local
schizophrenic homeless man, was
beaten nearly to death by three police
officers.
He was comatose upon being admitted
to the hospital and was taken off of
life-support six days later.
All three officers were acquitted.
Thomas’s father, a former police
officer, has filed a lawsuit with
unspecified damages, a symbolic
gesture to recognize the humanity of
his son.

22. This was a booking photo from one of the
92 encounters the “fixtured” homeless
Thomas had, released by the Fullerton
Police Department following the incident.
This is a blatant attack on the character of
Mr. Kelly Thomas. Obviously they declined
to release his hospital photos because that
would be wrong in this outright “CYOA”
strategy (Feel free to look up the photos,
but I chose not to post because they are
that graphic).
Following the officers’ acquittal in January
2014, Internet Activist group
“Anonymous” released all of the officers’
home addresses, as well as the identity of
all of the jurors. They also hacked and took
down multiple FPD websites and databases
in retaliation.
SMH.

23. MELODRAMA: A NECESSITY
Usually I would argue that life is not as simple as melodrama makes it, but in
this case I would be dead wrong. Mr. Kelly Thomas was beaten to death by
three narcissistic officers who do mock the blue uniform they put on everyday
(yes they are still officers of the law, just not in Fullerton due to necessary
relocation). The true victim in this case is what Thomas represents, which is a
mentally ill man who not only lost his sanity but his recognition of civil rights,
and by extension his entire humanity. This scenario can be likened to Michael
Myers brutally killing his own pets in Rob Zombie’s remake of the classic
horror film Halloween. The hero is people like Thomas’s father who continues
to fight for recognition of those with a mental illness, trying to change the
stigma first through dialogue and second through real social change.

24. KEN MCELROY
According to the legend, Ken McElroy,
local thug to the small town of
Skidmore, Missouri, was shot to death
in broad daylight on July 10, 1981.
It is estimated that there were between
30-40 witnesses and atleast two
gunman.
An ambulance was never called.
The DA declined to press any charges,
and a Federal investigation went cold.
To this day, no one has been convicted
of the crime, and the town remains
silent.

25. YES, THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
Rumor has it that the townspeople
were already having a town hall
meeting about McElroy, seriously
contemplating forming a
Neighborhood Watch Program.
Upon learning that McElroy was back
in town the sheriff strongly urged that
the townspeople seriously consider
forming the watch, and then loudly
announced that he was leaving town
for a few hours for official police
business.
Long-story short, the towns people
never made a Neighborhood Watch
Program.

26. THE DRAGON SLAYED?
There’s no question as to whether or not Ken McElroy was a terrible guy (21
indictments, one conviction that was thrown out due to a technicality),
plaguing the poor town of Skidmore with assault, child molestation (of whom
he got pregnant and forced to live with him), statutory rape, arson, hog and
cattle theft (a very serious thing down here), attempted murder of a 70-year-old
store clerk, and various other forms of burglary. No doubt about it, the
guy was a menace. To state clearly, vigilante justice is a serious crime, and
those taking the law into their own hands should be punished. Vigilante justice
is the epitaph of narcissistic, apathetic hypocrites who lack any imagination or
faith in the system. All of the people involved in this murder, including the
witnesses, should have been punished. But to use melodramatic rhetoric, one
could say that in this instance, real justice was served and the “culprits” did
not get away with anything because morally they were in the right. That same
person could also argue that they would be sinning if they hadn’t killed the
man.

27. QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CONCERNS?
So I guess this is where society’s headed.

28. END.
THEY
HAVE CROSSED
THE RIVER
AND REST
UNDER THE SHADE
OF THE
TREES.