What this woman allegedly did obviously was wrong. But as we can see, she is ONE CASE. Why are we just focusing on this ONE WOMAN . . . WHEN we have a bigger problem now? Isn’t nearly a million kids a year being abused on a routine basis the bigger story here?
Just because she was videotaped? The media really has blown this one out of the water, I’m sorry.
I guess watching frustrated moms allegedly beating their kids on tape makes for great ratings, huh? Hey, while we are at it, lets put the tape on Max-x and listen to the narrarator make jokes while she beats her little pumpkin into a pulp!
ENOUGH OF THE WOMAN BEATING HER 4 YEAR OLD TAPE ALREADY!
(Starts stopwatch, to be shut off when we read: “HEY VINNIE, DIDN’T YOU SAY YOU WERE GOING TOP STEP ON MY KIDS IF THEY RAN OVER YOUR TOE WITH A CART?”)
News agencies aren’t a public service (save NPR, though perhaps the Pew Charitable Trust folks are puppeting us ALL) …they’re businesses. They report partly what we ought to know and mostly what our $$ says we want to know.
I had similar thoughts as the OP. I watched this story break on my local news and thought, OMG I wonder what shopping mall that was, how could something like this happen in my own back yard, she looks kind of familiar, I wonder if I might have seen her… what? Indianna?? WHY ARE THEY SHOWING ME A TAPE OF A WOMAN BEATING HER CHILD IN INDIANNA?
Ahem.
That said, any news program that didn’t carry this story would have lost raitings & sponsors, as the TV-watching public would eventually catch wind of the story & start looking for a channel that is showing the video.
Then again, what ELSE do you want to see on the news. I’m a daily CNN watcher, although I’m going stop at this rate. Last night I watched for an hour, I saw the recap of American Idol, some random sports games, why Miss Universe got her crown taken away, and lots other bs that was NOT news.
Being a daily news watcher, I’ve only seen the video once, and only heard the recap on the story once. Honestly, I’d rather they grind this video into peoples mind that beating children is NOT ok, rather than beating in to peoples mind that American Idol is the best thing on TV.
Conclusion, if you look at the current state of news channels, I think this is a lot more worthy than 50% of their other coverage stories. Sad isn’t it.
“But as we can see, she is ONE CASE. Why are we just focusing on this ONE WOMAN . . . WHEN we have a bigger problem now? Isn’t nearly a million kids a year being abused on a routine basis the bigger story here? Just because she was videotaped? The media really has blown this one out of the water, I’m sorry.”
“WHY ARE THEY SHOWING ME A TAPE OF A WOMAN BEATING HER CHILD IN INDIANNA?” [sic!!]
Maybe I’m missing something, but up to the point that the woman’s attorney came forward and said she’d turn herself in, the cops didn’t know exactly who the woman was or WHERE she was, and actually ASKED the television stations to air the tape in hopes that someone would come forward with information. Doesn’t explain why they’ve still been showing it, but before that point there was a perfectly legitimate reason to be showing the tape. Yes, even in Washington for an incident that happened in Indiana: people with cars who are wanted by the cops have an odd tendency to use those cars to go to another state. :rolleyes:
I agree – I think ANY CHILD ABUSE is wrong – but the news networks are exploiting this.
I think the biggest problem with this story and everything else, is that there are three major 24 hour news networks which, well, need to fill 24 hours. Stories, which have just a little bit of merit, are now being pushed into major-major super nationwide stories.
9/11 was excellent fodder for these networks and boost ratings for them. Now that there isn’t much, they are at a loss for what to show – thus endless videotapes of childbeating and car chases. . .
I disagree with this reasoning in that, it is possible to take a still from the video and air that instead. The majority of the tape that I have seen, is the mother with her back toward the camera beating her child.
It could be argued that people are more likely to report this woman to the authorities if they are shown the full extent of her atrocities. Saying, “This woman hit her child, here’s a picture” doesn’t carry the same weight as showing that full tape. People will remember it more, and this are more likely to recognize the woman.
It could further be argued that by the networks showing this ad nauseum, people are going to have the gruesome nature of it driven home more readily, and may be more likely to report this sort of thing immediately should they see it in person, rather than turn a blind eye. Of course, it could also be argued that people will become desensitized to it, but I don’t know if I would buy that.
All that aside, I’m sure that the networks weren’t thinking of anything beyond their pocketbooks when they showed that footage. Of course, that’s more the fault of the public than the networks.
Why aren’t people who sexually abuse and starve their children or leave their babies in garbage cans getting savaged like this? THOSE are “Monster Moms and Dads”. Let’s parade THEM on the news night after night and embarrass THEM, because they deserve it!
This woman obviously has problems with anger management- but a “monster”?
What this women did was wrong, and hopefully if found guilty, will pay the price and get help, but there is much, much worse than this. The news media should be ASHAMED of themselves. I realize they have to get ratings, but this is way over the line.
Sorry, Vinnie, gotta disagree. Yeah, people who sexually abuse and starve their children are monsters, and arguably worse than Monster Mom, but I still think the nickname is appropriate. Any adult who would savagely beat a 4 year old like that IS a monster, and IMHO, deserves to be in prison. “Anger management problems” my left cheek.
Jeff
C’mon, Vinnie Virginslayer, there’s no shortage of the kind of reporting you pine for. Go to any news site and search “child abuse”. I did, and got hundreds of hits. Lots of other monsters out there get their “face time”.
Your remote does have buttons…
Peace,
mangeorge