Why is it that only...

[blzrul]

I'll refrain from commenting on the stupidity of allowing 125 just-graduated 18-year olds to go to a tropical island with only 7 chaperones....

 

But I have to wonder, where is the coverage of the men who go missing...or the homely women who go missing...or the women (and men) who are unfortunate enough to go missing under unremarkable circumstances?

 

I guess otherwise we'd have to read about mundane rapes, robberies and homicides but...sorry as I feel for this girl and her family I can't help but think of the hundreds of other families we AREN'T hearing about, who are perhaps fighting to get the word out about their loved one...after all the best way to find a missing person is to make sure as many people as possible know about it (hence the Amber Alert).

 

I suppose I expect too much from today's media...but I can remember the day when the media performed a useful service instead of just making empty noise. If one didn't know better, one would think that only pretty white girls disappeared. Or perhaps the media thinks we're all so shallow we'd only care about pretty white girls' disappearance.

 

I pray for her family and the families of all those missing.

[Ghost of BiB]

Sadly, it's marketing. You should know something about that. If Laci Peterson were black and fat, you never would have heard of her.

 

Something going on since advertising. Sex sells...even if it's a tragedy.

 

This is kind of an old, lame argument for you, isn't it? sort of beating the dead horse?

 

Oh...wait...

[Chilly]

It's the black people. "Where the white women at?"

 

(Note that this is in Jest and I am not racist. Thanks.)

[Thurman's Helmet]

I'll refrain from commenting on the stupidity of allowing 125 just-graduated 18-year olds to go to a tropical island with only 7 chaperones....

 

But I have to wonder, where is the coverage of the men who go missing...or the homely women who go missing...or the women (and men) who are unfortunate enough to go missing under unremarkable circumstances?

 

I guess otherwise we'd have to read about mundane rapes, robberies and homicides but...sorry as I feel for this girl and her family I can't help but think of the hundreds of other families we AREN'T hearing about, who are perhaps fighting to get the word out about their loved one...after all the best way to find a missing person is to make sure as many people as possible know about it (hence the Amber Alert).

 

I suppose I expect too much from today's media...but I can remember the day when the media performed a useful service instead of just making empty noise.  If one didn't know better, one would think that only pretty white girls disappeared.  Or perhaps the media thinks we're all so shallow we'd only care about pretty white girls' disappearance.

 

I pray for her family and the families of all those missing.

356149[/snapback]

 

Mark this down as one of the few times I agree with you.

 

I feel terrible for this girl's family but it seems only the "beautiful people" are put on the news.

[Tux of Borg]

It's the big news story of the week. In a week or two somebody will see the virgin mary on a hot pocket, and everybody will forget about missing people.

[Thurman's Helmet]

It's the big news story of the week.  In a week or two somebody will see the virgin mary on a hot pocket, and everybody will forget about missing people.

356214[/snapback]

 

 

Did you say Hot Pockets? DING! Cya later, gotta watch my American Idol reruns!

 

GO CLAY!

[Ghost of BiB]

Did you say Hot Pockets?  DING!  Cya later,  gotta watch my American Idol reruns!

 

GO CLAY!

356217[/snapback]

 

I'm glad someone is focusing.

 

We'll be lucky to make another 20 years.

 

Unless, you let some old grumpy white guys just do stuff, and leave us alone.

[Thurman's Helmet]

I'm glad someone is focusing. 

 

We'll be lucky to make another 20 years.

 

Unless, you let some old grumpy white guys just do stuff, and leave us alone.

356226[/snapback]

 

 

I hate that Ruben Studdard.

 

Now what were you saying about the mainstream media and its slant towards coverage of people who are considered "attractive" to the majority of its viewers (White folks ages 21-54)?

[Ghost of BiB]

I hate that Ruben Studdard.

 

Now what were you saying about the mainstream media and its slant towards coverage of people who are considered "attractive" to the majority of its viewers (White folks ages 21-54)?

356228[/snapback]

 

I thought it was 18 - 35.

 

Sleep tight.

[Alaska Darin]

I feel terrible for this girl's family but it seems only the "beautiful people" are put on the news.

356211[/snapback]

That's because beautiful people and athletes ARE better people.

[VABills]

Ummm.....

 

Couple of things her. First off, if you are a rapist who are you going to go after a 300 pound sweaty women/man, or a 18 beautiful blond?

 

Secondly, and yes you do hear about black, hispanic, asian people being kidnapped and killed, but on percentage who do you think it is going to happen to the most. Probably a white person. When 70% of the population is white 7 out of 10 times it will be a white person.

 

Think about the averages.

[VABills]

Ooops sorry, 77.1% white

 

white 77.1%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and Alaska native 1.5%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.3%, other 4% (2000)

note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.)

 

 

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html

 

 

Ergo, that is the reason most stories are about white people. Of course this ignores the fact that Michael Jackson has been on the front page for about 35 years now.

[Alaska Darin]

Ooops sorry, 77.1% white

 

white 77.1%, black 12.9%, Asian 4.2%, Amerindian and Alaska native 1.5%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.3%, other 4% (2000)

note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (including persons of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.)

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html

Ergo, that is the reason most stories are about white people.  Of course this ignores the fact that Michael Jackson has been on the front page for about 35 years now.

356276[/snapback]

Aw, leave Debbie alone. She only understands stats when it's a negative story about the Bush Administration.

 

FLIGHTSUIT!

[VABills]

Aw, leave Debbie alone.  She only understands stats when it's a negative story about the Bush Administration.

 

FLIGHTSUIT!

356282[/snapback]

 

I know, but I am in a pissed off mood over the general and abundant stupidity of nearly our entire population. I cannot believe just how blind and moronic people can be most of the time.

[SilverNRed]

Aw, leave Debbie alone.  She only understands stats when it's a negative story about the Bush Administration.

356282[/snapback]

Not true. She only uses stats when it's a negative story about the Bush Administration.

 

It's a stretch to say she ever actually understands them.

 

NEOCON!!!!!

[Alaska Darin]

Not true.  She only uses stats when it's a negative story about the Bush Administration.

 

It's a stretch to say she ever actually understands them.

 

NEOCON!!!!!

356306[/snapback]

You have a good point.

[Hot Pockets]

It's a travesty and I feel for the Fam..

 

DING ! Ham and Cheese ! Time for LOST on TiVo !

[Ghost of BiB]

I haven't seen NOSEPICK in a while.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

I haven't seen NOSEPICK in a while.

356553[/snapback]

 

Goat Story!

[Thurman's Helmet]

NATIONAL GUARD RECORDS!

[Ghost of BiB]

NATIONAL GUARD RECORDS!

356594[/snapback]

 

TD INVADED IRAQ!

[Chilly]

TD INVADED IRAQ!

356612[/snapback]

 

Fark no. TD doesn't have that much power. TD just gave Bush the false intelligence that we used to invade Iraq.

 

Geesh.

 

[stuckincincy]

I'll refrain from commenting on the stupidity of allowing 125 just-graduated 18-year olds to go to a tropical island with only 7 chaperones....

 

But I have to wonder, where is the coverage of the men who go missing...or the homely women who go missing...or the women (and men) who are unfortunate enough to go missing under unremarkable circumstances?

 

I guess otherwise we'd have to read about mundane rapes, robberies and homicides but...sorry as I feel for this girl and her family I can't help but think of the hundreds of other families we AREN'T hearing about, who are perhaps fighting to get the word out about their loved one...after all the best way to find a missing person is to make sure as many people as possible know about it (hence the Amber Alert).

 

I suppose I expect too much from today's media...but I can remember the day when the media performed a useful service instead of just making empty noise.  If one didn't know better, one would think that only pretty white girls disappeared.  Or perhaps the media thinks we're all so shallow we'd only care about pretty white girls' disappearance.

 

I pray for her family and the families of all those missing.

356149[/snapback]

 

Prayers here, too. BTW, how are you liking the Seattle area - been a year or so now?

[GG]

Darn.

 

From the thread title, I thought it was going to be a blonde joke.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

There was a grungy looking male college student in a small central PA college who went missing a few months back.....he had a train ticket for NYC.....for weeks there are no answers.....guess it was last week he was found swimmin with the fishes in the Hudson.

 

Anyone hear about that story?

 

 

Of course not......gotta keep focus on the blonde bimbo worm food down dere in Areeba...err Aruba.

 

 

 

So yes, other people besides Elizabeth Dim and Natalie Hoaway do actually disappear. And they also don't have blonde hair.

[Chef Jim]

I'll refrain from commenting on the stupidity of allowing 125 just-graduated 18-year olds to go to a tropical island with only 7 chaperones....

 

But I have to wonder, where is the coverage of the men who go missing...or the homely women who go missing...or the women (and men) who are unfortunate enough to go missing under unremarkable circumstances?

 

I guess otherwise we'd have to read about mundane rapes, robberies and homicides but...sorry as I feel for this girl and her family I can't help but think of the hundreds of other families we AREN'T hearing about, who are perhaps fighting to get the word out about their loved one...after all the best way to find a missing person is to make sure as many people as possible know about it (hence the Amber Alert).

 

I suppose I expect too much from today's media...but I can remember the day when the media performed a useful service instead of just making empty noise.  If one didn't know better, one would think that only pretty white girls disappeared.  Or perhaps the media thinks we're all so shallow we'd only care about pretty white girls' disappearance.

 

I pray for her family and the families of all those missing.

356149[/snapback]

 

I have an idea why don't you disappear Debbie. If they report it we know you're good looking. If they don't, well................

[Typical TBD Guy]

Of course not......gotta keep focus on the blonde bimbo worm food down dere in Areeba...err Aruba.

 

358887[/snapback]

 

Blonde bimbo worm food??? Wow...

[blzrul]

Prayers here, too. BTW, how are you liking the Seattle area - been a year or so now?

358502[/snapback]

It's fine, thanks for asking. The weather is much more bearable that DFW in terms of extremes, the job is a lot of fun, and I work with nice folks. The family is thriving which is what's important.

[KD in CA]

There was a grungy looking male college student in a small central PA college who went missing a few months back.....he had a train ticket for NYC.....for weeks there are no answers.....guess it was last week he was found swimmin with the fishes in the Hudson.

 

Anyone hear about that story?

Of course not......

 

 

Yup. It was all over the Post for several days.

 

 

So yes, other people besides Elizabeth Dim and Natalie Hoaway do actually disappear.  And they also don't have blonde hair.   

358887[/snapback]

 

Ridiculing children for being abducted, raped, murdered, etc? Nice. Still dealing with those rejections from girls in high school?

[blzrul]

Here you go. Dallas Morning News:

Are missing minorities getting media coverage?

 

News executives questioned in light of recent cases

 

 

03:53 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 15, 2005

 

 

Associated Press

 

 

 

Most of the missing adults tracked by the FBI are men. More than one-in-five of those abducted or kidnapped are black.

 

But you might not get that impression from the news media, and some journalism watchdogs are now taking the industry to task for what they see as a disproportionate emphasis on cases in which white girls and women – overwhelmingly upper-middle class and attractive – disappear.

 

Television executives, who receive much of the criticism, defend their coverage. They stress that cases such as the recent disappearance in Aruba of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama are extraordinary, and would be newsworthy no matter her background.

 

Indeed, no critic denies that the Holloway case and other disappearances are wrenching for those involved. But some insist that media attention on so few people overshadows the more than 100,000 active files on missing adults and children currently tracked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

"To be blunt, blond white chicks who go missing get covered and poor, black, Hispanic or other people of color who go missing do not get covered," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism. "You're more likely to get coverage if you're attractive than if you're not."

 

Said Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a group that works to improve diversity in newsrooms and news coverage: "In terms of giving citizens the information they need, I think we're failing because we're not giving an accurate portrayal of the world around them."

 

On its Web site, the National Center for Missing Adults profiles more than 1,000 individuals, including photos, physical descriptions and short narratives of when they were last seen. They are young and old, working-class and professional, of all ethnic backgrounds. Most are average-looking.

 

And most never receive a mention in their local newspapers or television broadcasts, said Erin Bruno, a case manager at the center who tries to interest media outlets in publicizing missing adults.

 

"We want everyone to get coverage, but we don't get to make those choices," said Bruno, who estimates that one out of the five news releases she sends out each week gets media attention.

 

Of the nearly 47,600 active adult cases tracked by the FBI as of the beginning of May, 53 percent were men and 29 percent black. (About 12 percent of the U.S. population is black, Census data show.) About 62 percent of those missing are white, but that figure includes Hispanics.

 

"Quoting those (FBI) statistics – it's like saying '99 percent of the nations in the world are not at war, so why are you focusing on the war?' But Iraq is an extraordinary event involving Americans," said Mark Effron, vice president of news at MSNBC. "What makes news is the unexpected."

 

He said Holloway's disappearance during a chaperoned trip is unusual, and would be heavily covered by MSNBC regardless of her gender or ethnicity.

 

Christa Robinson, a spokeswoman for CNN, said that a wide range of editorial considerations – including competition from other news events – impact the attention given to each potential story. The race or ethnicity of a possible victim, she said, is not a factor.

 

But Rosenstiel said that analyses of cable news in recent years shows an upward "trajectory of the salacious crime story" including those of missing white females such as Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, JonBenet Ramsey and Elizabeth Smart.

 

Many consider women more sympathetic potential victims than men – and white women even more so, said Kristal Brent Zook, a professor at Columbia University's journalism school who wrote an article published in this month's Essence magazine about missing black women who are largely ignored.

 

"Who's appealing? Who's sexy?" she asked. "The virginal, pure, blond princess is missing. ... It has a lot to do with class and sexuality and ageism, not just race."

 

Maynard said many news directors, editors and everyday people stereotype men and minorities who turn up missing and assume "it's drugs or criminal activity or some sort of pathology." If journalists – consciously or unconsciously – expect men and minorities to be crime victims, she said, few will consider it newsworthy if that actually happens.

 

"I don't think it's a conscious thing," she added. "I think it's an unconscious bias."

 

Dan Shelley, chairman of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, agreed that unconscious bias is possible.

 

But "to the extent that we as an industry have created a perception in some that we're ignoring missing person cases involving men or people of certain ethnicities, it's unfortunate," he said. "The more diverse our work forces are and newsrooms are, the greater the chances our stories will truly reflect our communities."

 

In 2004, 22 percent of the broadcast news work force were people of color, up from 17 percent in 1995, RTNDA data show. About 30 percent of Americans are minorities, Census data show.

[Alaska Darin]

Great. Now the liberal media is racist too.

[Bill from NYC]

There was a grungy looking male college student in a small central PA college who went missing a few months back.....he had a train ticket for NYC.....for weeks there are no answers.....guess it was last week he was found swimmin with the fishes in the Hudson.

 

Anyone hear about that story?

Of course not......gotta keep focus on the blonde bimbo worm food down dere in Areeba...err Aruba.

 

So yes, other people besides Elizabeth Dim and Natalie Hoaway do actually disappear.  And they also don't have blonde hair.   

358887[/snapback]

>>>>Of course not......gotta keep focus on the blonde bimbo worm food down dere in Areeba...err Aruba.<<<<

 

Dude, after such a statement, perhaps it is time to take a long look at yourself.

[Thailog80]

Debbie's just mad because she's been missing 14 years and no ones bothered to look for her.

[Alaska Darin]

Debbie's just mad because she's been missing 14 years and no ones bothered to look for her.

359830[/snapback]

Even with the pork chop around her neck.

[Thailog80]

Even with the pork chop around her neck.

359833[/snapback]

 

 

Yup. How sad.