Many are missing; few make the news

[question everything]

startribune.com

Many are missing; few make the news
Erin Texeira
Associated Press
Published June 16, 2005

Most of the missing adults tracked by the FBI are men, and 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 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.

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On its website, 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.

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Christa Robinson, a spokeswoman for CNN, said that a wide range of editorial considerations -- including competition from other news events -- affect 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 women such as Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, JonBenet Ramsey and Elizabeth Smart.

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