Missing Girls and the media:Elizabeth Smart Found!

Honeykiss1974 · #1 06-19-2002, 11:31 AM

From www.bet.com

Missing Children: Is the Media Favoring White Kids?

Posted June 17, 2002 -- Have you ever heard of Alexis Patterson?

Many who live in or near central Milwaukee have. The 7-year-old disappeared May 3, when she was on her way to Hi-Mount Community School. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, very little about Patterson, an African-American girl, has been heard nationally.

On the other hand, Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old White girl from Utah, who was apparently taken from her family's million-dollar home at gunpoint, has made the national news circuit on a regular basis.

The New York Times and The Washington Post both reported about Smart; neither reported about Patterson, the Journal Sentinel reported. According to the Journal-Sentinel's research, more than 400 stories have been written about Smart, while only 67 stories have been written about Patterson.

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Ok, I am shocked

because I have never heard about Alexis Patterson and she has been missing since early May! On the otherh hand, i have heard about Elizabeth Smart daily. Ohhhh

AKA2D '91 · #2 06-19-2002, 11:34 AM

This is a new one to me, too. I remember the little girl in Florida who was in the state's custody, but no, she was with the grandmother..

I remember that case.

I think it has to do with dollar bills. If you have money and the resources to get the word out, then it's there. It just so happens that the "whites" HAVE the money.

Now, that case in Florida probably made headlines because many wanted to expose the system as being flawed, then Jeb Bush is the governor there... Let's just show America that Florida is "screwed" basically....(no offense to Floridians, but you know where I'm going. You all have not been let off the hook since the election.)

Steeltrap · #3 06-19-2002, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Honeykiss1974
From www.bet.com

Missing Children: Is the Media Favoring White Kids?

Posted June 17, 2002 -- Have you ever heard of Alexis Patterson?

Many who live in or near central Milwaukee have. The 7-year-old disappeared May 3, when she was on her way to Hi-Mount Community School. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, very little about Patterson, an African-American girl, has been heard nationally.

On the other hand, Elizabeth Smart, a 14-year-old White girl from Utah, who was apparently taken from her family's million-dollar home at gunpoint, has made the national news circuit on a regular basis.

The New York Times and The Washington Post both reported about Smart; neither reported about Patterson, the Journal Sentinel reported. According to the Journal-Sentinel's research, more than 400 stories have been written about Smart, while only 67 stories have been written about Patterson.

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Ok, I am shocked because I have never heard about Alexis Patterson and she has been missing since early May! On the otherh hand, i have heard about Elizabeth Smart daily. Ohhhh

Actually, I've heard about Alexis Patterson before this post. I check the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Web site, www.jsonline.com. I met one of their columnists many years ago, and I also interviewed with them at a NABJ job fair.

Money does talk. The Smart child comes from $$$$, she was snatched from a house valued at $1.1 million. This sort of reminds me of Jon-Benet Ramsey.

AKA2D '91 · #4 06-19-2002, 11:50 AM

Now, remember when Dr. J's son was missing? That report was all over the media. Again, money talks...(you know the rest). So, there is a case where FROM THE BEGINNING, an AA was highlighted in a missing persons case. It was a "high-profile" case.

It's sad, but that's normally how it goes.

Steeltrap · #5 06-19-2002, 12:06 PM

I sure do remember when Cory Erving turned up missing. It was covered heavily on TV, including sports radio, because of Dr. J's legendary status.

Money sure does talk.

Eclipse · #6 06-19-2002, 07:50 PM

There are several things that the media is looking for when they decide which stories to pick up off the "wires"

The "hook" There are hundreds of murders/missing persons/ etc. each day. What makes this one different? 5/6 year old "beauty queen" murdered in her own house, wealthy neighborhood (JonBenet), girl kidnapped out of house while family sleeps, including little sister in the same room, again, in a wealthy neighborhood in "safe" Utah, famous ex-football player charged with killing his wife and her friend (need I say it???

), etc. All of these stories had a hook. If you remember, there was a story about a little black girl who was killed in a casino a year or so ago? That story made the news because of the "hook" of little girl in the casino. They also look for the story that will bring out the most sympathy from the audience. Of course there is racism associated with that. If you cannot identify with a little lost black girl, then why would you feel sorry for her disappearance?

Steeltrap · #7 06-19-2002, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Eclipse
There are several things that the media is looking for when they decide which stories to pick up off the "wires"

The "hook" There are hundreds of murders/missing persons/ etc. each day. What makes this one different? 5/6 year old "beauty queen" murdered in her own house, wealthy neighborhood (JonBenet), girl kidnapped out of house while family sleeps, including little sister in the same room, again, in a wealthy neighborhood in "safe" Utah, famous ex-football player charged with killing his wife and her friend (need I say it??? ), etc. All of these stories had a hook. If you remember, there was a story about a little black girl who was killed in a casino a year or so ago? That story made the news because of the "hook" of little girl in the casino. They also look for the story that will bring out the most sympathy from the audience. Of course there is racism associated with that. If you cannot identify with a little lost black girl, then why would you feel sorry for her disappearance?

I'm in the print media, and you called it very accurately about looking for a hook. The Sherrice Iverson story did make news because of the hook of her being in a casino -- err, the daddy was negligent. (I lived and worked in Vegas when the story was going on).

Steeltrap · #8 06-20-2002, 12:25 PM

I found this story on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Web site, written by its television-radio columnist. I sort of agree with his points, but it is still bothersome because part of me thinks that video shouldn't be the only factor in picking stories for the news.
Then again, I'm a newspaper reporter, so I see things differently.

The criticism of national news outlets, especially TV, for over-playing the Elizabeth Smart story while ignoring other missing kids, like as Milwaukee's Alexis Patterson, is on point.

The impression created by the out-of-whack coverage is that the daughter of an affluent white family is more precious than a 7-year-old black girl whose family hasn't climbed as high up the economic ladder. And that's an impression the news media shouldn't be fostering.

But there's another, far simpler explanation for the discrepancy in news coverage:

Video.

It's not an excuse. But it's a key reason why some news goes national and some doesn't. Moving pictures are the driving force behind TV news.

We've now seen the home video of the 14-year-old Salt Lake City girl over and over. There's Elizabeth playing the harp, acting in a school production, roasting marshmallows at the beach.

As tiresome as the snippets of video become, they've helped transform Elizabeth Smart into a living, breathing person for TV news viewers. It's the same way that JonBenet Ramsey was humanized by the endless showings of her beauty pageant footage.

If there's any video out there of 7-year-old Alexis, it hasn't been made available to television.

Moving pictures of little Alexis might have helped broadcast her story across the country when she first disappeared. Sadly, most Americans are just hearing her story this week, nearly a month and a half after she vanished.

Plus, I was reading the JS story that led to the BET piece, and it also pointed out that media coverage may also be less than enthusiastic if the parents aren't perceived as being sympathetic. Alexis' stepdaddy served a two-year prison term for selling drugs and he was also a getaway driver during a bank robbery in October 1994 that led to the death of a police officer, according to this article.

Sugar_N_Spice · #9 06-20-2002, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
Now, remember when Dr. J's son was missing? That report was all over the media. Again, money talks...(you know the rest). So, there is a case where FROM THE BEGINNING, an AA was highlighted in a missing persons case. It was a "high-profile" case.

It's sad, but that's normally how it goes.

The $$$$$ talk. Whether or not that is fair or just, that's how it is.

strawberry_02 · #10 06-20-2002, 04:46 PM

Yeah I actually saw the story on Alexis Patterson yesterday as I was flipping channels. It was on CNN. I was on the phone telling my friend that I couldn't believe that she had been missing since May and I had not seen anything on her. But yet the girl from Salt Lake City is on TV everyday. They haven't had any new signifigant developments but yet she's on everyday. I don't think its fair at all. Her family loves and misses her too, but there have been no volunteers to help look for her like they have looked for Elizabeth.I think its all about the benjamins too, but also about skin color. Which is truely a shame in todays world.

Steeltrap · #11 06-20-2002, 05:29 PM

From the Boston Globe:

THE MEDIA
Two missing girls, but only one big story
Some see race, class affecting coverage

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, 6/19/2002

You'd have to be living in a cave not to have heard of Elizabeth Smart. You'd have to be living in Wisconsin to have heard of Alexis Patterson.

Smart, a blond 14-year-old, was taken, apparently at gunpoint, from the bedroom of her family's million-dollar Salt Lake City home on June 5. Patterson, a 7-year-old black girl, disappeared on her way to school in central Milwaukee on May 3. Both girls are missing under tragic circumstances. But while Smart's disappearance has become a national media event and her face a familiar sight to millions of television viewers, Patterson's case is largely unknown outside the Milwaukee area.

For example, a Globe Nexis search of US print sources found 332 stories that mentioned Smart in the first paragraph compared to only 45 that highlighted Patterson.

Some observers say the dramatically different way the two apparent abductions have played out speaks volumes about the media - and society's - unbalanced treatment of race and class. ''Whatever happens in a black neighborhood doesn't really surprise anybody,'' says Earl Caldwell, a veteran black journalist and broadcaster. ''The public is conditioned to expect that. We take the privilege, and we equate it with the quality of the people.''

Yet, others insist that from a news perspective, the critical difference between the two girls is not skin color or neighborhood, but the nature of the two crimes.

''The Smart story is a better story, and this is me applying my news judgment,'' counters Condace Pressley, president of the National Association of Black Journalists and assistant program director at news/talk station WSB-AM in Atlanta.'' It strikes at the heart of every parent's fear, regardless of race. Here, this family is at home and in the dead of night, an intruder comes into the home and, at gunpoint, takes a child from her bed.''

Like Patterson, ''a lot of children are taken off the street and we don't come close to taking these cases,'' says Catherine Crier, a Court TV host. ''What [the Smart story] is saying is `we're not safe in our homes.' The common fear, whether you're Asian or black or white, is that someone invades your home.'' Crier is keeping viewers updated on the Smart story, and the Court TV Web site links to a series of photos and descriptions of Smart with toll-free numbers and a solicitation for donations. And while Fox's ''America's Most Wanted'' did a segment on Patterson in May, they have spent portions of the last two weeks' shows on Smart.

There may be other explanations for the discrepancy in the amount of coverage, including the media savvy of those involved in the cases. In a story on Saturday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted a ''Good Morning America'' spokeswoman saying that the program had energetically attempted to contact the local police, and Patterson's family and had heard nothing back.

And even those who don't think racism or classism is an issue point to more complex, but related, factors - the dictates of the marketplace and the demographics of most newsrooms - to account for the imbalance in the treatment of the two tragedies.

Jim Corcoran, a communcations professor at Simmons College, ticks off several crimes in recent memory involving white, well-to-do victims that blew up into media megastories: the Charles Stuart murder saga in Boston, the attack on the Central Park jogger, and the JonBenet Ramsey murder. ''You have upper- to middle-class people running the newsroom,'' he notes. ''It's their fears playing out.''

''I don't think anybody wants to minimize the victimization of a black person over a white person. It's just that they don't identify with it,'' says James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University. ''Print and electronic media tend to give their audiences what they want to read and see on the news. Because most Americans are white, they would tend to identify more [with a white victim]. It reminds them of their own vulnerabilities.''

''I'm a news manager,'' says Pressley. ''We all know who our listeners are, we all know who are viewers are, we all know who are readers are.'' The Smart case, she adds, ''is a story that touches a majority of our audience.''

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 6/19/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

Gina1201 · #12 03-12-2003, 07:30 PM

ALT LAKE CITY (March 12) - Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nearly eight months ago, was found alive Wednesday during a traffic stop in suburban Salt Lake City, police said.

''Miracles do exist,'' said the girl's uncle, Tom Smart.

The girl was found in the car of a drifter who was pulled over in a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon, Sandy police spokeswoman Michelle Burnette said.

''Two separate women called in and said they thought they had spotted 'Emmanuel,''' she said. Emmanuel, whose real name is Brian David Mitchell, once did work on the Smart's home.

Sandy police pulled over Mitchell, another woman and a girl who looked like Elizabeth. They later confirmed her identity, police said.

Salt Lake City police detectives arrived to take over the investigation. Smart was transferred to the Salt Lake city police station. Mitchell was in custody at the Sandy police station.

Last month, Elizabeth's parents announced a new reward for information and asked for help in their search for the handyman known only as ''Emanuel.'' They released a sketch of the man.

At the time, they said Elizabeth's sister, Mary Katharine, had come to them recently to say ''Emanuel'' bore some resemblance to the man who took Elizabeth from their room at gunpoint.

Elizabeth's kidnapping was part of a frightening string of child abductions that included the slayings of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of San Diego and 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Orange County, Calif.

Elizabeth was 14 when she was seized early on the morning of June 5 in front of her 9-year-old sister by a gunman who may have gotten into the house by cutting a window screen near the back door. As the younger sister pretended to be asleep, the gunman threatened to hurt Elizabeth if she didn't keep quiet.

The top potential suspect in the kidnapping, Richard Albert Ricci, a handyman who once worked in the Smart household, died Aug. 30 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while in prison on a parole violation. He said he had nothing to do with the kidnapping.

Investigators have said they believe he was involved but may not have acted alone.

Over the summer, the Smarts held twice-daily news briefings and helped coordinate huge volunteer searches. Ed Smart, a real estate broker, vowed to keep the case in the spotlight.

The family often got calls from the police, but it was never the information they wanted to hear. Often, police were calling to alert them to grisly discoveries that might be linked to their missing daughter; they wanted the Smarts to know before the story hit the news.

Sometimes, the news beat the police. Hands and feet had been found in a canyon, or bones had been discovered in the desert, according to the news. The Smarts would call police to ask if it was Elizabeth. Every time, the answer was no.

Police said they followed up more than 16,000 leads from the public in addition to those they have come up with themselves.

AP-NY-03-12-03 1729EST

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Hopefully, they can find some more children alive. This at least can give some people hope.

Steeltrap · #13 03-12-2003, 07:49 PM

RedefinedDiva · #14 03-12-2003, 11:45 PM

This was recently on Dateline. The little sister came forward and said that she believed that "Emmanuel" was the one. On Dateline, his kids came on and said that he ("Emmanuel") and his wife, their mother, had decided that they wanted to live exempt from taxes, therefore decided to get ride of their worldly goods and "become homeless." WTF?!?!

They showed a pic of him and the wife and said that they probably would be somwhere around the area. I want to know what they have done with the girl for 8 months....

Gina1201 · #15 03-13-2003, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
I want to know what they have done with the girl for 8 months....

I do too especially since she was only 15 miles from home. I'm really starting to think that there is a LOT more to this story unfortunately.