This is one of the most laughable ‘outrages’ I’ve seen in a while. It’s not a new story. It comes up a few times a year but the answer to the problem is always the same.
First, let me, as a member of the media, highlight why some stories get covered and others don’t. Newsflash, it almost never has anything to do with skin color.
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1440227683053420561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1440227683053420561%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fmedia%2Fmsnbc-joy-reid-focus-gabby-petito-case-missing-white-woman-syndrome
People who just vanish and there’s no additional information or evidence available, tend to not get covered all that much. It’s horrible for the families of the victims but it’s a reality in the news business. There needs to be a ‘hook’ to use to suck the audience into the story.
Those ‘hooks’ could be an unusual set of events, surveillance video showing something that might be relevant to the case, a photograph, text, or cryptic phone call. Sometimes there might even be witnesses. It could also be a small piece of evidence in the case. The media, often at the request of the authorities, puts this info out there to the public so the public can view the evidence and maybe help with the case. If there’s no evidence, the coverage rarely moves beyond the initial few stories for headline news. People like to feel like they can help a case and then become invested in it emotionally.
Crimes that happen in areas that aren’t crime-ridden do tend to get covered more because they are atypical. Is this fair to the victim’s family in those other cases, no. It is a reality though. Most local news outlets that I’ve seen in my career do a great job of highlighting tragic cases involving children even in high crime areas. They don’t often make national news because they aren’t of national interest.
Gabbi Petito’s case had all of the ‘hooks’ that make a compelling news story and then some. She was likely the victim of domestic battery, she was an aspiring social media influencer with fans who followed her travels, her public social media posts provided more evidence in the case, and she was traveling the country when the crime happened which means there’s more need for authorities to get the story on national media to gather evidence. Most stories don’t have most of these components. The fact that Gabby was young, white, and attractive are all secondary factors in the news coverage but people like Joy Reid want you to think those are the primary reasons her story was so widely covered. I’ve covered countless cases like this and the looks or race of the victim are rarely the central dynamics in coverage. The facts and evidence of the case are almost always the driving force. I’ve covered stories with all sorts of races and conventional standards of beauty throughout my career. The only demographic that I’ve ever seen get cast aside and not really given meaningful attention are boys and men who disappear. There are exceptions to that rule but, generally speaking, we cover the missing girl or woman much more readily than for boys or men.
This has never stopped the news media from screaming foul every time a case gets the attention that Gabby’s did when the victim is a white woman.
The media's focus on the Gabby Petito case has been frustrating for some people — who point out that the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women doesn't get nearly the same media attention.https://t.co/CAEI82oXrL
— NPR (@NPR) September 21, 2021
“In the same area that Gabby Petito disappeared, 710 indigenous people— mostly girls—disappeared between the years of 2011 and 2020 but their stories didn’t lead news cycles …” https://t.co/HJ01B6CsRK
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) September 21, 2021
Eugene Scott is with the Washington Post. Eugene Scott didn’t know about those other missing people until Gabby went missing. He never bothered to look before so save us the sanctimony.
These hysterics are wonderfully ironic.
The news media is OVERWHELMINGLY liberal. Every survey of the media shows a vast majority are liberal. It’s been that way for decades. Some estimates have the media being around 85% Democrat/liberal. Analysis of the media’s political donations are well over 90% to Democrats. In some election cycles, the media donates to Democrats by as much as 96-97% over Republicans.
The media’s political ideology is only relevant because that same news media tells you constantly that the left is anti-racist and the right is racist.
So, the media says it’s racism that leads to missing white women getting more coverage than minority women but it’s the media who chooses what stories get covered and that media overwhelmingly identifies as being politically left?
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/09/21/if-only-the-wapo-national-political-reporter-noting-that-media-have-largely-ignored-missing-indigenous-women-were-in-a-position-to-do-something/
If the news media thinks racism is what’s driving missing white women to get more coverage than non-white missing persons then the media should probably stop being so racist in their choice of what they cover, don’t you think?
It’s like the athlete gender pay gap nonsense. If women really cared about women athletes being paid as much as men, women would start watching women’s sports and support those athletes, but they don’t.
All the media has to do to change what stories get the most attention is to … change what stories get the most attention. They are the only ones to blame for this. No one else controls what stories get covered. Maybe stop constantly trying to demonize middle America and Trump for 5 minutes and focus on all of those non-white missing person cases you didn’t know about before lamenting the coverage of Gabby Petito. May she rest in peace and her family get justice.
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