# Why is Elizabeth Smart so newsworthy?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 13, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199 "2003-03-13T22:52:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantone_Swatchbook)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/1 "2003-03-13T22:52:15Z")
Anyone with access to a news outlet in America has probably been saturated with reports about this girl’s return to her parents. Ok, hooray for the family. Now why is this thing headline news all over the country?
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/2 "2003-03-13T22:58:40Z")
I actually have no idea what you’re talking about (then again, my radio got stolen from my car last month and that’s where I get most of my news).
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### Author:  [@Khadro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadro)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/3 "2003-03-13T23:01:09Z")
no, that’s where you **got** most of your news.
😃
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/4 "2003-03-13T23:04:21Z")
Because it’s a happy ending that was expected by pretty much no one.
I seriously don’t get why people have a problem with this.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/5 "2003-03-13T23:14:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \*
> \*\*…I seriously don’t get why people have a problem with this. \*\*
It’s not so much the happy ending, IMHO, it’s the fact that there are so many children who are missing who don’t get the media blitz.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/6 "2003-03-13T23:18:54Z")
Well, whatayagonnado?
This one is getting covered. Good.
What is the solution, ignore _all_ of these stories until _all_ of them get covered?
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### Author:  [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/7 "2003-03-13T23:19:19Z")
All right, please no one come in and kill me for this one, but what I’ve heard speculated here is that the reason she’s getting so much coverage is because she comes from such an affluent family.
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/8 "2003-03-13T23:19:29Z")
Please read the forum descriptions before posting.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/9 "2003-03-13T23:19:58Z")
It serves those missing children right, **Mr. Blue Sky** , for not being pretty, blonde, and middle-class. How dare they.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/10 "2003-03-13T23:22:16Z")
Because nothing new is happening in the Iraq thing?
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/11 "2003-03-13T23:30:01Z")
Crist Almighty, I thought I was cynical.
It’s a good story. That’s why it’s being covered. It would be great if every missing child got this sort of media attention, but that just isn’t possible.
Yeah, it has all the ear marks of a Hallmark movie of the week – pretty white girl, affluent family, drifter as perp, etc – it doesn’t take away from the fact that a girl who pretty much anyone who followed the story thought was dead … isn’t.
Ergo, it’s a good story to cover.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/12 "2003-03-13T23:31:07Z")
Because we NEED some good news, dammit?
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### Author:  [@Pantone\_Swatchbook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantone_Swatchbook)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/13 "2003-03-13T23:42:49Z")
Sure, its a feel-good story, but the news coverage fars outweighs the newsworthiness of this event. Every news show wants to keep me “updated” on the latest happenings surrounding this story, yet I don’t feel one compelling reason to find it interesting.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/14 "2003-03-13T23:58:56Z")
Because most bona fide “newsworthy” stories aren’t of any real interest to most people and the tv/radio stations don’t want you flipping the station so they give people what they want.
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### Author:  [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/15 "2003-03-14T00:11:32Z")
What stories are more newsworthy? “News” meaning something new? It certainly is getting less press than the Superbowl.
It is not that she is white, pretty, and affluent. (Not middle class, affluent.) Do you remember that Hispanic boy who escaped after something close to 10 years as a pedophiliac sex hostage? That got lots of press too. You think someone is dead, and they aren’t - and they are found 15 miles from her home. That is “news”.
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### Author:  [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/16 "2003-03-14T00:35:30Z")
IANA parent, but I believe it is every parent’s worst nightmare to have a child abducted. And then for that child, assumed by most to have met an untimely demise, to return to her family alive, well, that is one heck of a happy ending which, as already stated, has been in very short supply lately.
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### Author:  [@NightRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightRabbit)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/17 "2003-03-14T00:41:07Z")
It’s not just a huge story because she’s been found, it was huge on the news the day after she was kidnapped. Most kidnapped children don’t get that sort of press.
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### Author:  [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/18 "2003-03-14T00:49:55Z")
Most kidnapped children aren’t kidnapped by strangers out of their own homes in front of their little sister. But, in fact, most do get a lot of press. I admit I don’t watch much TV, but I recall several kidnappings that got a lot of press. I mentioned that CA Hispanic boy. The whole Amber alert thing would not be so big if that kidnapping had not made big news. There really are very few kidnappings of this sort that do not make big news. Of course, I really mean, I never heard of any …
Can you tell me of one that didn’t?
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### Author:  [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/19 "2003-03-14T01:19:37Z")
Yeah, I really think the fact that she was taken from her own house with her parents asleep nearby is the element that really gives it a sort of nightmare quality that grabs a parent’s attention. The fact that the family is middle-class might come into play more just because, hey, they lived in a well made house in a safe, affluent neighborhood.
If their own home wasn’t safe, how could mine be?
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### Author:  [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-elizabeth-smart-so-newsworthy/161199/20 "2003-03-14T01:32:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by SlowMindThinking_
>
> There really are very few kidnappings of this sort that do not make big news. Of course, I really mean, I never heard of any …
>
> Can you tell me of one that didn’t?
How about Alexis Patterson, the 7 year old Milwaukee girl who disappeared in the half block between where her step father left her (after walking her to school) and the school entrance. She’s been missing since May?
{[http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1145727](http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1145727)}
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