Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries: Fact Or Fiction?

The escalation of media coverage surrounding devastating events, created another form of television for society: unscripted, reality television. As images of devastating events occurred, the media coverage shaped society’s opinion, invoking fear from urban area to suburbia. Celebrity reputations were quickly altered by allegations of heinous events, whereas, terrorists and teens were escalating to infamy. Was the news the culprit for inciting fear and chaos in an already insecure environment? Did the structure of the media outlets so closely mimic that of the entertainment industry that society could no longer distinguish between celebrity news and news that created celebrities? By providing society with the excessive coverage of car chases,
He shoots his teacher and several of his classmates before he is awoken. In an interview with Matt Lauer, Jim Carroll defends the artistic integrity of his work, although he claimed the film medium grossly misrepresented his original work, calling the slow motion fantasy scene “kinda corny.” Carroll’s original work included a fantasy description of is fantasy to “take a machine gun and start firing like mad toward my right side. Not at anyone or anything unless they got in my way but that wouldn’t matter much because I would aim fairly high….I guess it would just release some tension.” However, attorney for the Paducah families, Jack Thomson claims that Basketball Diaries should be held responsible for Michael Carneal’s “spiraling decent into depression” Carroll counters the attorney’s argument, claiming that answers are being looked for in the wrong places. Carroll claims that it would not have been “boyish” for him to tell anyone about his depression. Was society looking in the wrong place? Should someone have taken their eyes away from the media propaganda and instead focused on their