Well, who was it!? 
Can I add a rant about those damn Amber Alerts?
Yesterday Noon ‘news’ show consisted of:
Amber alert for four kids (and their mom) presumed taken by father. Blah blah for 2 minutes.
Then, here are the ages and names of the four kids.
Then, here is a helicopter shot of the house where they lived.
<commercial or four>
Then, updating the Amber Alert story… Another three minutes, including repeats on the kid’s names and the picture of the house.
Then, ‘this just in’ – we now have a photograph of the '92 white (something) that they are believed to be driving. (Not the actual car they owned, just a shot of one the same year/color/model.)
<commercials>
Updating the Amber Alert story. Repeats of all the above.
Another “Just in” – here’s a (way too blurry to be of any use) picture of the mother.
More repeats of all the main points.
And interview with the neighbor whose major information was “We didn’t know nothing had happened until we saw the news vans come.” !!!
<commercials>
Updating our lead story…blah di blah de blah.
A 20 second weather forecast.
Stay tuned to this station for up to the minute updates…
Aaaaaaargh! Other than the brief weather report there was NOTHING in the entire show except endless repetitions of very few facts about this missing family. Why? Why? Do yo think we didn’t hear you the first six times???
(Oh, btw – the children, mother and father were all black, so maybe they deserve diversity points.)
Anyway, I can understand the utility of the Amber Alert on the bill boards and radio – it’s the people who are also driving around who are likely to spot the children/car – but how many drivers are watching the noon news report?
I think it’s a misuse of Amber Alerts to issue them when the abductor is a parent. The urgency of Amber Reports has to do with the statistical odds of a child surviving a stranger abduction. Unless there is reason to believe a non-custodial parent will harm the chid, I think issuing AA’s for them waters down the urgency and makes the reports too ubiquitous for people to be able to remember them all. They should only be used if there is reason to believe the child is in physical danger. They should not be wasted on petty custody squabbles.
… and, when their hair is soaked, like wet dogs.
Woof!
EDIT: Also, let’s say it was “Ebony” instead of “Amber” that was abducted and killed some years back, resulting in the creation of a missing child alert system. Do you think there would be Ebony Alerts?
My parakeet went missing (flew the coup, actually) and he’s white. Do you think I can get some national coverage?
But then again, what good would it do in Texas when he is probably Owl vomit within a mile of here?
The good news on the Nancy Grace front is that she is being sued into oblivion by the family of the woman who committed suicide after being hounded on her show:
Let me re-emphasize this bit:
I sure fucking hope so.
Speaking of hounded family members and stupid media frenzies, I note that the DA recently cleared John and Patsy Ramsey in the death of JonBenet Ramsey. Fuck the media vultures who destroyed the reputations and ruined the lives of these distraught parents just to gain a few ratings points.
I thought MSNBC was “All Pedophilia, All The Time.” At least, every time I walk into the breakroom at work (now that they’ve switched from the O’Reilly Ranting Channel to the So Bill Gates Things He’s A Media Mogul Network) it’s Chris Hanson telling off another middle-aged white guy for agreeing to meet up with a thirteen-year-old girl. What gets me is ITS ALWAYS THE SAME FUCKING HOUSE! Don’t these guys walk up to the door, look inside, and think to themselves, “Hey, this looks kind of famil…oh, shit, better bail before they catch me on camera! Oh, hey, how ya’ doin’? I’m just here from the Church of Later Day Saints and I’d like to tell you about the Book O’ Mormon…”
Stranger
The trick is in knowing when it’s okay to watch MSNBC. That’d be when Hardball is on, when Countdown is on, when reruns of MTP are on, and when there’s election results coming in. Otherwise stay far far away. That said, just those four times means I still watch far more of MSNBC than I do CNN or FOX. Then again, that’s not hard when I never watch CNN or FOX.
Yes, I completely agree, in fact if it wasn’t for tha t recently here in CA a kid was rescued due to a Alert, I’d say get rid of them.
Do you live in Zimbabwe?
Stuff White People Like should do an entry on “having our kidnappings covered by the national media.”
I thought that MSNBC was the “Stuff about prison” channel, but maybe that’s because I watch before going to bed. I like Lockup anway.
Everybody I know, everybody I meet, everybody I talk to online, every blog I read, including me all want and prefer hard news, but this soft shit has absolutely taken over. SOMEONE out there is clamoring for it, and they outnumber us. WHO ARE YOU, FUCKERS?!
My sexist friend who works in the print news industry claims that female producers push this stuff. It’s a good thing I’m not sexist and therefore don’t believe him.
Since I’m not sexist, it’s also a good thing I don’t believe female viewers drive this coverage.
Maybe you’re wooshing, but I believe 100% that women drive these stories.
I sure hope not. I’m female, and to me, election drivel of the “Is Obama too popular” variety is better than another missing person sideshow. It’s not about finding someone or getting the community to reach out to the family, it’s about ratings and getting to practice that “deeply concerned” facial expression until you start to wonder if the anchor’s face might freeze like that.
Sometimes the concerned expressions and the inflated sense of urgency ring especially phony. The last few days they’ve geen running some story into the ground about a non-custodial father who took his daughter and ran. The way they were acting, the kid was in grave danger and everyone should be panicking (she’s a blonde after all), but the reality was that the police and people that knew the family in question were all saying the guy loved his daughter, had until recently been the primary caregiver and that kid was in no danger. A woman who (unwittingly) drove them out of town said the kid was playing happily in the backseat and that she and her dad were doing the “I love you more” thing the whole way there.
Not that he should have taken the kid, but he obviously wasn’t going to hurt her (and had no history of violence, apparently). The attempts of the talking heads to inject fear into the story was ridiculous. One reporter breathless related that she had talked to a neighbor who described behavior that sounded “controlling.” The reporter said with disbelief that he “even tried to control what she ate, once telling her that she couldn’t have any blackberry jam.”
The little girl is 7. You’re SUPPOSED to control what a 7 year old eats. That’s not being “controlling,” that’s called parenting.
Anyway, he shouldn’t have taken off with her, but he was clearly not going to hurt the kid, and they were acting like precious seconds were ticking away. I don’t even know why they thought it was news. Non-custodial parents take off with their kids every day. The media only cares if she’s a pretty little blonde girl, though. That makes it relevant.