So, for about 5 days, the national media has covered the story of the "missing bride-to-be".
It turns out that this grown woman got cold feet and instead of facing it, ran!
Police inAlbuquerque say the bride-to-be discovered in New Mexico late Thursday told them she wasn't really kidnapped after all.
At a news conference, police said Jennifer Wilbanks admitted it was actually a case of cold feet. She says she needed some time along to rethink the wedding that had been scheduled for Saturday, April 30th.
I wondered from day one why that story made it to the national level. So, again, the question that seriously needs to be asked is, "What makes the media cover what it covers?"
Yesterday, on a local news station, I saw 2 news segments that covered teh disappearance of people. One was a college student who went to New York for the weekend to be with friends, another was a woman who disappeared going to a concert.
Neither of these cases have made the national news.
On the local level, some stories have made the news that I've wondered how they were able to get a local news television station to come out and waste time covering the story.
We are familiar with the "If it bleeds, it leads" angle of news coverage, but the case of scared bride-to-be had no blood. The Lacy Peterson case had blood, but it was a murder. We see local news coverage of murders every day on the news. They don't make it to the national level at all.
There is the recent case of the 5 year-old girl who went crazy in school. The ONLY reason this made national news is because there is a video tape of the incident. But, even then, it turns out that this happened WEEKS before it made it to the national stage.
While that madness had made the national news, another more serious incident also made the national news, but not at the same decibel level.
School officials may be charged in alleged sexual assault
Nick Juliano THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The girl was led by the arm behind a stage curtain in the auditorium. There, witnesses said her lip was bloodied and she was sexually assaulted by a group of boys, an attack videotaped by one student and watched by more than a dozen others who came running as word spread.
Within minutes, the developmentally disabled girl reported the alleged assault to a special education teacher, who said the girl "looked dazed and confused and was crying."
But principals didn't immediately notify police for fear of media attention, in violation of state law. When the girl's father arrived, he was asked not to call 911. He ignored the request and called police.
Now administrators at Mifflin High School face the possibility of being charged along with students in the alleged March 9 assault at the school, which has a history of violence.
Note that the information went out on the Associated Press Wire. So the Associated Press picked it up. It was published in newspapers outside of the area of where it occurred. It just didn't make that big of a splash on the national level.
Some people, like The Black Informant, are upset about that incident and believe Black media really should have picked up on this with vigor. (In my area, I first heard about the incident in the Black media. Those who commented on it were outraged).
I have no clue as to what makes things more "news worthy" on the national stage. Some things makie it while similar things don't make it. I guess it's a choice of the editors and how they feel that day.
For example, I asked my wife why the "missing bride-to-be" should have been national news from the start. One thing I do know, and that those who cover it from a racial angle, probably have it wrong as well.
What do I mean?
Some insist that "white on Black crimes" are reported with more vigor than "Black on white crimes."
I'll hit the racial angle in "What The Media Covers, Part II".
Only guessing here but the facts that the woman went missing right before her wedding, called her fiance and said she was kidknapped, and her fiance had restrictions placed on his possible lie-detection test all made the story a script for a LifeTime movie.
Other people missing are much more local and sadly, common place.
Posted by: elg at April 30, 2005 01:08 PM