The missing persons hysteria

[KevinTheOmnivore]

So that girl is still missing in Aruba, and it's still a crisis to Fox News and Joe Scarborough.

[Yggdrasill]

People go missing all the time. Is she like important or something? I always change the channel when I see Missing in Aruba in the news.

[GAsux]

You know I'm confident that that girl is either dead or being forced into prostitution in a third world country somewhere. But from the start, I'm confused about the whole thing.

If Ms. Alabama was on a high school trip with adult chapperone's etc, why was she out until all hours of the night, completely unsupervised, drinking, etc? I don't understand why not a single word has been said about the morality or wisdom of allowing your teenage daughter to go on an essentially unsupervies trip to a foreign country to a resort destination known for its party atmosphere.

As a parent myself, there is no way in hell I would let my daughter even go on that kind of trip. Whatever happened to family get togethers or a trip to Disneworld for graduation? Who sends their teenage daughter to a Girls Gone Wild destination, completely unsupervised?

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by El Blanco

Hostess does.


And you're right. Children from poor areas that aren't "camera friendly" (minorities) don''t get media attention.

About the same time that Smith girl in Utah was abducted, a little black girl in Philidelphia was grabbed, bound and gagged in a basement of a housing project.

SHE CHEWED THROUGH THE ROPES ON HER HANDS TO ESCAPE.

Did anyone else hear about this?

Environment and learned survival skills. If you have been overly taken care of your whole life, how would you know how to take care of yourself? And ... oh yeah ... there's the moron aspect too, of course.

[ScruU2wice]

Originally Posted by GAsux

You know I'm confident that that girl is either dead or being forced into prostitution in a third world country somewhere. But from the start, I'm confused about the whole thing.

If Ms. Alabama was on a high school trip with adult chapperone's etc, why was she out until all hours of the night, completely unsupervised, drinking, etc? I don't understand why not a single word has been said about the morality or wisdom of allowing your teenage daughter to go on an essentially unsupervies trip to a foreign country to a resort destination known for its party atmosphere.

As a parent myself, there is no way in hell I would let my daughter even go on that kind of trip. Whatever happened to family get togethers or a trip to Disneworld for graduation? Who sends their teenage daughter to a Girls Gone Wild destination, completely unsupervised?

I hate how these people basically want every single citizen in aruba arrested and detained without evidence till they find their daughter. I mean the resources on this island were probably stretched thinly on it's own citizens, and now the state of Alabama wants them to stop their lives till they find a genious girl that decided spending a night out in aruba would make sense.

[Yggdrasill]

Now that I know who she was I wish I could forget about it but I know now i'll never forget her. She was a beautiful, strong, funny, outgoing, cheerleading honor roll all in one.

She actually looks like someone I would hate in real life so I hope they find her alive but disfigured.

[Schwinny]

They're bringing the topic up again.
Whoever went missing in Aruba is supposedely dead, and they want us to care more by brining it back up with evidence that we could care less about.

[Preechr]

Originally Posted by mburbank

There are a number of reasons.

they're easy to cover.

They're simple to understand. (Try comparing runaway bride to Iran/contra or the Tyco trial)

They generate zero political pressure...

The average viewer, when offered a choice between something important but complex and something irrelevant but highly digestible, makes the obvious choice. At one time, the press was intended to help people keep tabs on big important things that weren't so obvious... hidden even...

Isn't that why we enshrined freedom of the press in the Constitution?

I think rather than wonder why the media has taken to serving the LCD viewer while abandoning it's intended mission we should be worried about what's being allowed to happen while the press is asleep at the wheel, blitz-covering random minutia.

But that's just me.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

I think that concern is one in the same. I know, hell, we all know that there is something MUCH more important to report on when we see a cable news station covering every white female who goes missing somewhere.

What do you want, a letter writing campaign?

[Preechr]

How many times do I have to tell you? Activism is for schmucks!

The only thing that produces any sort of real, tangible results is posting one's opinion on the inner-net.

I push a button, and my deepest, most heart-felt emoticons are forever enshrined within the hallowed archives of I-Mockery, to be treasured and cherished by all.

Now THAT's doing something. Dick Cheney can kiss my ass. HAH!

[kahljorn]

A letter writing campaign would be great, just send a letter to every senator or something bitching about how horrible President bush is and the rest of the government. spread the addresses around the internet. Most people are probably too lazy, though.