The AP’s Megan Scott writes about Nancy Grace and features a critical TVNewser…

The show is called “Nancy Grace” — not the “Nancy Grace Factor” or “On the Record with Nancy Grace.” And it airs seven times a week on a 24-hour news channel.

But it’s no news show.

“She’s producing a drama just like any other crime show,” says Brian Stelter, editor of TVNewser.com. “She’s using journalism as her stage because she is taking these real-life events and putting her spin on them. Even the way she introduces the show, it sounds less like news and more like entertainment.”

Dramatic music at the start of the show sets a firm and controlling tone. Her sensationalized narrative (Baby Abby found alive!) Both grab the viewer at the outset, says Ted Mandell, who teaches in the Department of Radio, Television and Film at the University of Notre Dame.

“Musical scores are one of easiest ways to invoke emotion into a piece,” he says. “Let’s make the event really scary and really important with music and identify it as ‘The War on Terror.’ Give it a headline, a narrative. Simplify the story into a cliche bumper sicker — ‘America Fights Back.’ It gives the viewer something to latch on to.”

There are other parts to this theatrical performance — the sound effect of a cracking whip when Grace is interrogating someone. The way she inflects her voice with her barrage of questions (Tell me about the suspect. Was it a woman? Were they in a home? What kind of structure was it? Is the woman under police custody?”) How she ends her show with “Good Night, Everybody. And until tomorrow night, good night, friend.” Nancy Grace is our friend!