Commentary I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase “media circus” lately. I’ve heard it applied to all sorts of crime-related stories I’ve covered during my decades as a reporter. Lately, the expression cropped up during the near wall-to-wall coverage of the Gabby Petito missing person/homicide case. I also heard it applied recently to the widespread reportage on pop star Britney Spears’ fight against her father’s court-sanctioned control over her life. When uttered, those two words—“media circus”—are usually accompanied by a dramatic eye roll and a sarcastic sneer. Slapping that label on a story is akin to giving the public permission to ignore the core importance of the case at hand. That’s a shame. Take the case of Petito, whose body was ultimately found in a national forest in Wyoming where she had been traveling with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. The medical examiner determined Gabby’s cause of death was strangulation, …