Surely, there’s a co-ed somewhere in middle-America that’s 15 minutes late for something. :rolleyes:
Until that press-conference begins, however, CNN is following the story of a fairly attractive woman of color who has been missing for 9 days. NINE DAYS! CNN was all over the Runaway Bride story, Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, etc. within minutes. But an African-American woman, single mother, from the center city of Philly has to go missing for 9 days before anyone notices.
Nice.
And pregnant too, apparently?
Jeez. No, no media bias here, i’m sure.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
Though I’d be just as happy if they didn’t report ANY missing persons stuff on the national news…or maybe have ‘The Milk Carton Channel’ just for these stories.
If it makes you feel better, we had a white woman who was missing for a few weeks before it hit the local news. I don’t think it ever hit nationally. Link
There may also be a difference between missing children and missing adults, with the runaway bride story being an exception.
Personally, I think there should be a 24-48 hour limit on missing person stories. If they are still missing at that time, you’ve reached everyone you were going to and we are just getting tired of hearing about it.
But she was 48. At least 20 years past her prime for hour long “status report” news shows dedicated to rehashing everything four or five times a segment.
Think how long it would be if they hadn’t a glamour shot of her to post?
True, but I still say it has more to do with missing adults vs. missing children. Holloway was fresh out of High School, this woman is an adult with a family and therefore, the assumtption is that she can take care of herself. The runaway bride thing was more of an anomaly, I think. I may tell my boss I have to leave work early to go to Philly and look for this missing woman. Do you know if they know where her car is? My guess would be that she had an accident and the scene hasn’t been found yet.
Says she frequently uses public transportation, so I would assume no car.
She has a seven year old child, so the story could focus on the child whose Mother is missing. Also she didn’t pick her child up from day care on the first day, so she has been known to be missing for all those 9 days. So I think we do see favoritism in the media’s reporting of missing people, though I’m not sure if any missing people stories are really news worthy except where spreading the news may help in finding that person.
Come on. Plenty of women, black and white, are probably ‘missing’ right now, but nobody really cares because there is no ‘hook’ to the story. Give us a husband left standing at the altar, then quickly questioned by the FBI…give us an exotic locale (Aruba!) combined with some sexy co-ed Spring Break-type hijinks (drinking all night!)…then add a dash of political scandal (main suspect is son of a judge!) and you’ve got yourself a missing persons story.
Besides, think of it from the reporter’s POV: “Gee, I have my choice of flying down to Aruba for as long as we can milk this story for all it’s worth…or I can go stand around in frickin’ Philly 'til God knows when…hmmmmm…let me think about this one for a minute.”
This article quotes the father of the baby–but he won’t even give his name. And where is her 7-year-old’s father? It seems like lots of the support network that most women have is simply missing here–no weeping man holding the adorable daughter, no press conferences, etc. That means fewer people to help with searches, fewer people to support the daughter, fewer people in general who care. With Natalee there’s a father, a mother, a stepfather, and the high school administration, since she disappeared under their care. Also the entire government of a country which desperately wants to solve the case to help save a vital industry. Also, the family has the resources to take time off their jobs and fly to other countries for weeks at a time, something most people can’t do no matter what their color.
The family and friends are actively looking and good for them, but I see nothing in the article to indicate that they’ve held press conferences, called CNN or the Inquirer or Extra, or generally went out and done the publicity gamut that generates nationwide attention in these cases.
Well the “missing co-worker” never made the news.
To be fair, the runaway bride is a brunette, not a blonde.
I can’t see the point of any “missing persons” stories making national news. Local news, yes, but if someone has gone missing in Chicago, IL, why would most folks not in Chicago matter? Is the abductor (if there is one) going to fly around the country and snatch up folks in other cities as well?
It’s all breads and circuses. Keep watching the media-manufactured “breaking news,” pay no attention to what your legislators are doing. Oh, and buy more stuff.
It’s only because shes pregnant.
You know they’re currently draining * a lake* in Aruba in hopes of finding some more clues? I bet they wouldn’t drain a lake for my sorry ass.
I’ve heard it described as a lake and as a ‘flooded field’.
But I do have to wonder if Aruba wants to say, “We give up” anytime soon?
I continue to not get the point of these missing girl mediathons. I get the point of the Amber Alerts. I get the point of local news making an Amber Alert. I don’t get the point of making a mediathon over a missing person. How many people does this news personally affect? A small number of people who are friends/family, and then a guestimate of a small number of people who may have seen or heard something related to the events of a disappearance. And yet, the entire country is apparently interested? And only if it’s a pretty white girl?
Why do the 24 hour news channels not reflect the public interests? Why do I have to turn to C-SPAN to learn about actual news? Why do I have to go online to learn about actual news? Why does anyone watch the 24 hour news channels at all?
I’m sure Aruba wanted to say “we give up” as soon as they heard about it. Who’s gonna send their kids down there now?
Well, in the two years I have lived up North, we have had two situations where these cases went widespread. One woman was abducted here and transported to Chicago and left in a trash can in a storage locker. The woman in the link I provided claims to not have even known anyone was looking for her and was in Kentucky. We also had a 12 year old white girl kidnapped and raped last weekend that you guys never heard of outside the area.
I think that limited amounts of publicity make sense, especially when foul play can be reasonably expected, which is the case with most kids. I think that TV is not the best/right answer. If I am at home watching TV, am I going to see the kidnapping victim? I think not. If they do show up in my apartment, I am calling the police regardless of their missing person status. I think any national publicity after 48 hours is pointless. If the person is still missing, they are likely dead or hidden. Most of the people who have been found alive after this time, I think were either still in the area where they were abducted, or were not really missing.
But…without the continued publicity, would the waitress at the Denny’s have recognized the little girl in Idaho? Would the people who called the police on Elizabeth Smart have recognized her? Lots of people saw Smart in the months she was gone and didn’t recognize her. They have footage of the little girl in Idaho making eye contact with people in a store that didn’t recognize her. I would hate to think that a little kid didn’t get rescued because we as a society stopped caring about kidnapping victims. Maybe we should have a missing persons channel…but I doubt many people would watch it.
I’ve got to yet again post the link to the story about the merging of CNN and MSNBC to form a new network: the WWWA. Even though this is at least the second time I’ve linked to it; it’s just so damn funny and so very a propos.
Again, props to the doper ( I don’t recall who it was) who first posted links to this story a few weeks ago.
I’ve always wondered if it was as much money as race or youth. A lot of folks believe that money is this sort of protective blanket surrounding the well-to-do. Dissappearing happens to poor peope who can’t afford security systems, and such. It’s almost supposed to happen to them only.
Same as how tragedies shouldn’t happen to the young (especially not beautiful young women on vacation), it upsets our sense of order. Problem is, white people still tend to have a higher average income than minorities, so I don’t know if you could determine which it was or if it’s all inter-related.