I don’t have time at the moment to give this rant the venom it deserves, but has anybody else seen any of the CNN coverage of the Caylee Anthony memorial service in Orlando today? It’s truly disturbing and disgusting. They’re broadcasting this exploited to hell and back little girl and then trying to exonerate themselves with “we focus on Caylee as the emblem of a much bigger problem with missing children”. BULLSHIT madre-fookers, you’re doing it for ratings.
I’ll admit I saw very little of it- I was flipping channels- but then the “toothache you gotta brush your tongue against” thing made me flip back. They mentioned that nobody was allowed to take cameras, cell phones, or large bags into the sanctuary (a church that seats 5000, no connection to the Anthony family but volunteered due to the crowd). But of course they let the news cameras in…
[Lt. Col. Frank Slade, USMC, ret.]So coordinators of the Caylee Memoria, FUCK YOU TOO![Lt. Col. Frank Slade]
Somebody was praising Casey for being such a caring mother and hoping she was watching. Uh… yeah…
The death of a child is always hard, but when it’s a photogenic child and the death is sensationalized, it’s even more of a tragedy. I need to bathe now just for the minutes I watched. Hopefully someone who watched more will elaborate.
I’m with you on this. Children die all the time in ways that we have more control over than in this case. I wish we spent 1% as much time on childhood vaccinations, car seats, universal healthcare, SIDS prevention, or any of another dozen more important issue. I don’t see how networks executives can look themselves in the eye in the morning. They control one of the most powerful tools ever invented to disseminate information and instead they fill it with morons like Nancy Grace and Geraldo Rivera.
Can you imagine what it would be like if all news show were of the caliber of NPR (or The Daily Show for that matter)? Slant them left or right, but just have thoughtful commentators discussing real issues in a way that educates and entertains.
I might be able to agree with you rant, except you have overlooked the most important fact that changes this from just a run of the mill, local occurance to a top flight national news story. Had you realized the context, you would understand why we need to treat this with stop the presses, 24/7 coverage.
We’re dealing with a missing white girl here!.
There, don’t you now see what all of the well justified fuss is about.
The worst thing, of course is that there is no such “much bigger problem with missing children.” The vast majority of “missing children” are only missing for a few hours, and not even “missing” in the classic sense of “nobody knows where they are.” And the vast majority of really missing children are taken by a relative (their mother, say?) or a family friend. Real “stranger abductions” are as rare as being struck by lightning.
But oh, they are such sensational stories. It touches on what “every parent” fears: that every single person on the planet is out to get your kids and if you turn your back for even a second some pedophile is going to take them. Sap for the credulous. No matter that 90+% of child sex crimes and homicides are committed by relatives and friends, and that stranger abductions have declined for years. It’s like the anti-vax crowd: no facts will dissuade, every falsehood confirms the fear.
Man, I get frustrated with my fellow parents sometimes.
I go out of my way to avoid the Caylee Anthony coverage, but nonetheless, I’ve heard from time to time on national media that “Orlando is consumed with the case” or some such blather.
I returned from a hiking trip and was in Orlando for weeks before I even realized that the case was happening here. I ate dinner at a house a half-mile from where they live, and I had no idea. Five months on, and I still have yet to hear a single conversation about it.
Major rolleyes down here. I think it was in incredibly poor taste and very tacky. The only person I really feel sorry for is George. I’m sure Cindy is no comfort to him right now.
Scent of a Woman Col. Slade may have been, but I’m referring to Lt. Col. Slade the USMC retiree who owned a Peugeot dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas and used to say “Fuck you too!” to incoming customers due to a mild case of Tourettes and a more serious case of poor salesmanship. (He eventually had to go out of business and became a rodeo clown, very briefly.)
It’s very unfair to imply the media only cares about missing white girls. They have to be photogenic as well- the media’s not going to devote hours and hours and hours each week to a fat, ugly, and or bad complexioned white girl. They have standards after all (and not just with girls- everyone knows who Matthew Shepard was, but far nicer person/far less attractive Billy Jack Gaither who died around the same time, not so much).
I’ve been meaning to pit CNN Headline News for a while now. I see that they’ve re-branded themselves “HLN”, so maybe “news” isn’t really part of their name anymore. It’s just sensationalistic, exploitive, tabloid trash now. Also, I can’t stand that blowhard that does Prime News, with his faux outrage at every story he reads.
This whole thing reminds me of that two part Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode with both pairs of detectives… The one featuring Colm Meany that revolved around a beautiful young teenager who disappeared (“In the Wee Small Hours,” according to the IMDB). It looked quite a bit, especially in Part 1, at the media’s role in such matters. One of semi-recurring characters in the center of the media feeding frenzy was TV host Faith Yancy, the L&O universe’s take on Nancy Grace (see what the writers did there?).
Guess who seems, to my limited exposure, to be one of the biggest contributors to this sadly real life situation?
It’s about a year now since Banita Jacks was arrested in DC. She had murdered all four of her kids and had lived with the decomposing bodies for about six months.
I didn’t watch for it, but I didn’t see live nationwide coverage of the memorial service.
