When pretty white females go missing...

[Peanut]

When pretty white females go missing, it's news
By DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press

NEW YORK - When "Dateline NBC" reporter Josh Mankiewicz asked television news division chiefs to talk about disproportionate coverage of attractive white females who go missing, only his boss agreed.

His report on the trend is scheduled to air on tonight's edition of "Dateline NBC."

Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, JonBenet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart and now Natalee Holloway all became household names because of the way television news divisions, particularly the cable networks, extensively covered the story when they went missing.

Each had another common trait: they were young, white, pretty and female. Some have questioned how they became stories, when more than half of missing people are male and nearly three in 10 are black.

Mankiewicz follows the case of Tamika Huston, a black woman from Spartanburg, S.C., who disappeared last year. Her aunt, a public-relations representative, told NBC she tried hard without much success to get national news outlets to report on the story. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/12308162.htm
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Do you feel there is disproportionate attention paid to missing pretty, young, white females? Or is it more a matter of the families of such "missing" are more likely to get out there and scream and raise hell about the missing?

[Val]

I do think there is a bias in the national media. Locally, not so much. Our city paper recently had a long column about a local 15 year old black girl who was a previous runaway who has been missing 3 weeks. Police consider her a runaway but her family fears something has happened to her. It made the local news even though most would consider her disappearance not a big deal - I do consider a child missing for 3 weeks a big deal, period.

[mom2burgess]

I've noticed the PWF (Pretty white female) Syndrome lately in the national media like Val said. I can't say if certain families make a bigger deal about getting media coverage or not, but I can't image many of the minority families don't attempt to get coverage

[Jory]

It is a huge bias in my opinion. What is even more disturbing is that the media is aware of it and still continues to be biased.

[Raven]

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Do you feel there is disproportionate attention paid to missing pretty, young, white females? Or is it more a matter of the families of such "missing" are more likely to get out there and scream and raise hell about the missing?

I think there is a disproportionate media attention paid to certain cases over others, and I think it has far more to do with how photogenic the media finds the victim than anything to do with the wherewithall of the parents to create a media storm. I don't recall that Jessica Lundsford's father was particularly wealthy or influential, yet her case is still in the news.

I would not wish to see LESS attention given to their cases, but I would like to see more given to all others. With as often as our local news repeats the same story (about Dan Marino's induction, for instance), I am sure they could squeeze in more information that might actually help save a child, kwim?

[kingclick]

I love how so many think that these women were pretty. Pretty is subjective.

Chandra Levy was a story because she worked with Gary Condit.
Laci Peterson, was a story because it was around Christmas and she was about to give birth.
JonBenet Ramsey was not a woman. And she was "abducted" from a home without signs of forced entry.
Elizabeth Smart taken from the room where her sister slept.
Natalee Holloway danger in Paradise was the story there.

Also there was one other issue here.....DEDICATED parents who had the power to get the politicians at work.

Trying to make this into a race issue is just another way to keep the race wars going.