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Originally Posted by JoeRedskin
I don't think you going to get much disagreement. Stories about young white middle class women disappearing, killing their kids or getting sexually abused by the family all get bigger play than if the story was about someone poor, male and/or of color.
As Schneed said, things like this happen all the time. Sad but true. In Baltimore alone, I can recall two or three cases of african american women being accused of killing their young child in the last year or so. In the media, that's one headline (maybe two) then moving on.
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There are only so many stories that can be covered. Either you cover some, or you don't cover any. You can't cover them all. Middle class women in their mid 30s to mid 50s is a key demographic for local news and HLN. HLN's ratings have been through the roof with this trial. And it's a fortuitous coincidence that their rebranding in 2008 coincided with the first months of this story.
But as to the white vs. black question, I recall from my local news days participating in surveys focus groups to get a sense of what people like and didn't like and what they did and did not want to see in their local news coverage. One thing that had really stood out to me was the significantly high share of African Americans who did not want these stories covered when it came to their own race. Not in this way. The general response was "We know there are enough troubles in our community, you don't need to sensationalize it. If someone is missing or has been killed, tell the story only as far as it will help find the person or solve the case, or there's no need for us to watch your station." Still, some of our biggest stories during that period had to do with missing people (of multiple races)
Now I'm not saying that's why "white stories" are more extensively covered. I think it's simply a matter of the people these networks are primarily targeting tend to be riveted by these types of stories. I just thought it was interesting.
As for Ms. Anthony, if she's not guilty then who is she covering for? I mean from the start she was lying (with the whole fake nanny deal), so she must have known something?