The idea that this is all based on race is ridiculous. What, is she the only white girl to disappear? Hell, I can go down to wal-mart and see pictures of 20 missing white girls in the foyer.
More sensible reasons include:
Family is rich.
Family is politically connected.
Family is member of Mormon church, which (in my perception) is second only to the church of scientology in grabbing for media attention.
If she’s attractive, then that’s a reason (I haven’t seen her). And attractiveness is NOT a race thing.
I’m sick to death of hearing people cry “race!” at every f-ing thing.
P.S. The biggest consumers of rap music are white males, and nearly all of the record companies are owned by whites, so I’m not sure what your point might have been in bringing it up.
The media is responind to their marketing research. Calling it racist is myopic.
Someone over at CNN has been looking at their daily website stats, and the pretty picture of Elizabeth Smart got 500,000 clicks, compared to 20,000 for the story about the bombed Afghan wedding, 5,000 for the WorldCom indictments, and 35 for Bush’s meeting with the president of Poland.
“500,000 clicks!” he exclaims. “That’s ten times as many as we got for that (black) Florida girl, and equal to JonBenet Ramsey. And almost as much as for Elian Gonzalez…”
He doesn’t give a shit about race. Neither do the execs he shows the report to. They run the story again because it’s popular. And yes, the pretty white girl wins every time because news surfers respond to pretty white girls. Same reason Hollywood casts them over ugly Samoan girls–market response. Whose fault?
Convince 500,000 people to click on Alan Greenspan’s speech details instead, and you will change the media “racism.” Or better yet, follow lissener’s example and choose media outlets that mirror your own priorities.
I think that case got less media attention for two reasons. First, because it was a “heinous heinous evil crime”. It’s upsetting to hear that a child is missing. It’s upsetting to hear that the body of a missing child has been found. But a brutal attack like the one described above is too much even for the generally voyeuristic public.
Secondly, suspense is a large factor in news coverage. Will Elizabeth ever be found? What’s going to happen to Elian? Who killed JonBenet? Stay tuned! But if the story begins with a child who was maimed horribly but survived, and who will have to live with that, and with the uncertainty that her attackers will be brought to justice, or even identified, people don’t want to stick around to find out how it ends.
And it’s not true that black children don’t get media attention. Rilya has already been mentioned. Then there’s that little girl with the braids (shame on me for not remembering her name) who was killed in a casino in Vegas. And Tawana Bradley. That got tons of attention because Al Sharpton attached himself to the case. And does anyone remember that time in the early 80s when a whole lot of little black boys were going missing in Atlanta? I was in elementary, so my parents did their best to shield me from coverage, but what I did hear scared the hell out of me.
Furthermore, I believe the real reason JonBenet’s case got so much attention was less because people felt sorry for her and more because her parents were suspects from day one. A lot of people resents upper-middle-class denizens like the Ramseys, and if it had been possible to charge them, let alone convict them, Joe Lunchbucket and Sally Hashslinger would have felt a deep glow of justification.
It comes down to broad demographics (many factors, ranging from income, age, race, net worth, education, etc.) and how they are applied to marketing news. Take NBC. They ladder the “news” about this case, begining with the Today show and ending with the “latest” on the evening news, with continuous plugs through their other holdings (MSNBC, etc.). The demographic profile of the group that the families fit into are highly desirable for advertisers. For long periods of time, there aren’t any real developments, but because the story attracts the attention of the demographics that matches the family, it stays on the air and NBC promotes it.
Bottom line if it can be promoted, draws the right kind of ratings, it stays on the air until the next drama that replaces it. That is why I watch the BBC - they don’t tend to clutter up their reporting with this kind of “soft” news - thats when I can get the remote away from the wife.
It pisses me off that someone would be rotten enough to do something like this. It also pisses me off that sadly, there are tons more missing kids that don’t get the benefit (or is it a harm?) of a media frenzy calling attention to the search for them.