As they sat in front of the iMac in the den, Gurney navigated through the RAM website. He was always appalled by new evidence of how trashy the media world had become. And it kept getting worse. Moronic sensationalism was like a ratchet that turned in only one direction. And RAM’s toxic programming was leading the descent into the pit.

A home page consisting mainly of a huge red, white, and blue logo—“RAM NEWS NETWORK: THE WORLD WITHOUT THE SPIN”—was followed by a page that featured their most popular offerings. He scrolled quickly through the listings in his search for Orphans.

SECRETS AND LIES: What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You

SECOND OPINION: Questioning Conventional Wisdom

APOCALYPSE NOW: The Battle for America’s Soul

Gurney pressed on grimly to the next page of the website, where, at the top of a list of news specials, he found The Orphans of Murder. Under the title was a short promotional teaser: “What happens to the survivors when a killer tears out the heart of a family? Shocking true stories of grief and rage. Premier Episode Tonight at 7:00 P.M. EDT.”

Ten minutes later, at 7:00 P.M. precisely, the first episode began. The screen was almost completely dark. The eerie cry of an owl suggested that the viewer was looking at a country road at night. A man walked out of the darkness into a narrow area of illumination cast by the headlights of a car parked on the grassy shoulder. The bone structure of the man’s face in the angled headlights created the sharp shadows of a face in a thriller film.

He started to speak in a slow, portentous voice. “Exactly ten years ago, in the spring of the year 2000, in the rural hills of upstate New York, on a lonely road like this one, on a moonless night, with the chill of winter still in the air, the horror began. Bruno and Carmella Mellani were returning to their country home from a christening party in the city, perhaps discussing the happy events of the day, the dear friends and relatives they hadn’t seen for so long, when another car came rapidly up behind them, then began to pass them on a long, dark curve. But when that strange, speeding car came abreast of Bruno and Carmella Mellani …”