No Love in the Ryan O'Neal story today

Odd treatment of the Ryan O'Neal assault story today.

Most of the stories focus do not even name O'Neal's son, Griffin, and give his age (which is 42+), thus making it seem as if the elder O'Neal is guilty of child abuse, in addition to firing off a pistol.

Yet at the same time the stories mentioned Griffin's 22-year-old female friend who was "inadvertently" injured during the domestic dispute. A "friend" who was 20 years younger than Griffin. Hmmm ...

We readily admit we know few of the facts of the case, and certainly the news coverage hasn't enlightened us much, which is why we thought a little more research was necessary.

A quick check of the net reveals that Griffin hasn't exactly had a squeaky clean past, having had troubles with substance abuse including being involved in a fatality boating accident in 1986 that ended the life of Gian Carlo Coppola, son of director Francis Ford Coppola. For that Griffin was indicted for manslaughter. How that came out, we do not know.

The radio news we heard this morning was, if anything, even more biased against the 65-year-old Ryan O'Neal. Jokes about his acting ability, the state of his career and his sanity, etc. Seems he's fair game now that he's no longer a hot Hollywood commodity. Why his shooting schedule, or acting ability, should have any bearing on any of this is a mystery.

Back when we were in the daily news business, even celebrity crime news was treated with the same respect that non-celebrity crime news received. Innocent until proven guilty. At least a bit of research into the backgrounds of the people involved. A desire to see basic facts, like ages, published for each person involved.

These standards have been on the decline for some time now. Guess today's treatment of Ryan O'Neal is not so odd afterall. Just wish people would try to be fair and thorough for a change, instead of sensational.