I swear, this is getting tiresome. Really, truly, annoyingly tiresome. And the worst part is that it doesn’t have to be this way. CNN.com is going all out on the story of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year old who’s been missing in Aruba for a week now. I feel sorry for the parents and the friends who went there with her, but all of that gets pushed aside by the crass commercialization of this poor girl’s story. News, and cable news in particular, has descended into a ratings battle to create entertainment out of news. Rarely does cable news challenge you to think. Instead, we get Crossfire and stories about missing white women.
Categories: In the News
4:07 AM | 6 comments
June 5th, 2005 at 10:09 AM
Ahem. Dear, now you know a little bit more about why I hate CSI and SVU — the subject of missing women IS entertaining.
(I’m a writer for TV: “I know, let’s have a young women adbucted, raped, and then dismembered. That’ll make for great TV viewing.”)
Tell me, where are the stories about men being victimized like there are SO many about women? And specifically — where are the stories of men being held in captivity like that by a woman. The only story I know of is Misery.
Not that I’m above it all — I clicked on those headlines.
June 5th, 2005 at 1:53 PM
If you watched the shows, there ARE many shows about men being victimized by these type of crime… there are more about women, true, but that’s also reality.
June 5th, 2005 at 8:11 PM
It’s actually NOT reality — I researched this at one point. More men are murdered. Quickly, I looked this up: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/gender.htm
This is not exactly what I remember finding — because I know I was looking for stats on men held in captivity and then being murdered. I was shocked by higher incidents of men being victimized in this way because it is so much more entertaining to see females victimized in this way.
June 5th, 2005 at 8:41 PM
Perhaps what you’re finding is that TV doesn’t really influence real world behavior that much? Just a thought…
June 5th, 2005 at 8:42 PM
How funny is it, by the way, that we’re having this conversation over FatMixx when you’re upstairs. In fact, why the heck are you ON FatMixx? I’m not coming up because you needed quiet to concentrate.
You wouldn’t be slacking off up there, would you?
June 5th, 2005 at 10:51 PM
No. I’m DONE grading my exams.
Besides, my point is that TV shows depicting women being victimized over and over (ie, every damn week) are using the victimization of women for entertainment purposes — whether it is to show the male heroes saving the day, etc.