Monday night's fireworks were nothing compared to Tuesday afternoon's explosion when Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter Caylee.
      Facebook started spinning with a constant flow of posts, most of which could not be printed in a family newspaper. Offices buzzed with the news. Someone asked whether anybody else heard news diva Nancy Grace's head exploded.
      It is intriguing how people have reacted to this case. Some have clung to the television as they watched every second of the trial. Others complain they have to work and miss the trial coverage. The outrage seen and heard after the judge read the verdict shows just how powerful the media can be when it comes to something that captures public interest.
      Does anyone remember OJ's trial, or for that matter, the low-speed chase that started the media frenzy?
      How about Michael Jackson's trial? I distinctly recall crowding around the office TV watching that verdict being read.
      I'm not knocking the real media, which reported the trial as it happened and covered the results. I'm not knocking the people who tracked the trial either - if I had the time I probably would have been tuned in right along with everybody else.
      What does bother me, however, is how some "so-called" media icons turn what should have been a serious trial into a sensational, drama-filled ratings booster.
      I am also bothered by the fact that in spite of what appeared to be enough evidence to most people following the trial, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering Caylee.
      She was found guilty of lying to police. During the trial she was found to have partied, got a tattoo, and otherwise acted like anything but a bereaved mother while her child was "missing." She also failed to report her "missing" child for quite some time after she became "missing."
      Yet - a jury found her not guilty.
      The comments found on Facebook and in the public have been interesting. One employee in our office had no idea who Casey Anthony is and knew nothing about the trial.
      A Facebook comment posted Tuesday garnered a lengthy list of heated replies: "Tired of hearing about Casey Anthony or whatever her name is. Who cares??"
      But most people I heard from were shocked and angry about the verdict.
      "This little girl is much better off without having to be raised by this woman," said one lady. "No one can harm her now. Justice will get her "Mother" in the end."
      Another poster who works at Georgia Southern University posted she "truly believes in KARMA... what goes around comes around... and Casey Anthony will get what is coming to her eventually..."
      I'm not the only one who is disgusted by the carnival atmosphere caused by some media coverage of the trial. A woman in Sylvania wrote: "I think I'm gonna throw up. They are treating her like a ROCK STAR. She will be judged."
      Yet another mother summed it up quite well.
      "I can't believe that Casey Anthony was found not guilty! I have seen a lot of injustice in my life, but I thought for sure that she would at least spend the rest of her life in jail," this mother wrote. "GOOD mothers do not go out and party and get tattoos while their child is missing."
      No, they do not. They do not duct tape their babies' mouths or carry their bodies around in their car trunks. Any good mother would have been hysterical the minute her child "went missing."
      Caylee is an angel in Heaven, Casey Anthony is likely headed in the other direction. If she did not murder the child herself, she knows who did, and God knows it all.
      But, as days go by ... The sensationalist faux media will find another tragedy to exploit, the real media will have other real news to report, and America will soon find another dramatic murder trial or other emotionally charged incident to which, via TV, they will become addicted.
      But in the meantime, as time passes and other topics obliterate her memory, Caylee is still gone.

      Holli Deal Bragg can be reached at 489-9414.