Friday, August 05, 2005

Mainstream Media Ignores Missing Minority Kids

What Else Does Mainstream Media Omit from News?

Meet Tamika Huston. She's been missing since May of 2004. The FBI believes she was kidnapped from her apartment in Spartanburg, SC.

She's had almost no major media attention until a small number of stories aired this Summer.
The few outlets that have featured her have done so not to highlight her abduction so much as to ask why - why so little attention has been paid to her story and dozens of other missing kids and adults? Meanwhile, an entire nation knows the names and faces of Natalee Holloway, Laci Peterson, and Lori Hacking from nearly non-stop coverage of their disappearances.

Tamika is a vibrant, pretty young woman, but like most Americans, I didn't know her story until recently.

Perhaps it's because news producers don't view
these kids quite as "camera ready" or as affluent as Ms. Holloway. Perhaps with some disappearances, there are mitigating circumstances involving runaway kids or custody battles.

However, there are many cases where the circumstances are exactly the same, yet major media shrugs.

This is media bias that makes political favoritism seem utterly unimportant. Yet, it stresses one important fact: mainstream media does not have accuracy or context in mind when its editors decide what to report and what to omit. Ratings and controversy are the only criteria considered.

Is it any wonder that readers are seeking out alternative sources for news and information in record numbers? If the MSM plays fast and loose with the facts surrounding missing children, what else is sacrificed on the altar of ratings?

Here is the link to the website for
Missing and Exploited Children. They have a listing of missing kids across the country and you can search their database by state too. You can even make a donation.

It's worth 10 minutes of your time - even if mainstream media doesn't believe it's worth theirs.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The mainstream media is particularly awful for ommitting things, I've seen. I'm pretty lucky that here in Britain, our "state news agency" (if it can so be called), the BBC, is particularly open-minded and rational about finding and reporting pretty much anything at all.

Nonetheless, in the wake of the recent bombings in London, I've started to look towards people-managed news, such as WikiNews, to make sure I'm getting a suitable amount of opinion. Maybe I'm just paranoid about the government... tin foil hat time!

8/06/2005 05:01:00 AM  
Blogger Rockel said...

It doesn't just ignore missing minorities. About 95% of the time it ignores missing males. Notice that even in your post the white people receiving media coverege you listed were all female. It just isn't "sexy" to talk about a missing dude on national T.V.

8/06/2005 10:52:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know if you or anyone else here listen to Glenn Beck but on Thursday or Friday he was talking about this exact subject.

It's a double edged sword. All of the 24/7 news channels are enamored with Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy, Natalie Hollaway, and whichever cute white female comes after her forever and ever. I don't know how, but somehow that brings in the viewers.

Myself, after about the fifth day of the current abduction du jour, I have no chance of having a hot tip for the case, so I try to find something else.

Thankfully we have many channels to flip to, whole networks that run on missing people stories, America's Most Wanted, the internet, talk radio, email, websites, and the like.

We have a much better ability to bring up old and underreported cases and bring them into the spotlight. I think the internet, America's Most Wanted and talk radio is the best thing to come along in a LOONG time for people who are missing or abducted. We are their last and possibly greatest hope.

Just look at the Shasta case in Idaho, sadly the rest of her family was killed, but the little girl can hopefully one day be able to get on with her life with a foster family.

Thank you for writing about this.

8/07/2005 04:28:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is True and FOX News is the worst at this! Fair and Balanced indeed :-)

8/08/2005 10:57:00 AM  
Blogger BohemianLikeYOU said...

Golly white castles, you seem to know a lot about FOX's coverage. I couldn't even tell you what cable channel FOX is on locally.

Is your tin foil hat on too tight?

8/08/2005 09:12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like to watch and read lots....

The tinfoil is fine - how's the kool-aid?

8/09/2005 08:51:00 AM  
Blogger BohemianLikeYOU said...

The Kool-Aid is fine - come on in!

8/09/2005 01:27:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home