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19 Aug, 2011 22:06

Mainstream Media prefers blondes?

Mainstream Media prefers blondes?

As a blonde woman with glamour shots' disappearance takes precedence over other murder and missing person stories, it raises the question: whose blood and life does the mainstream media value more?

“Police in Missouri have found the body of a missing three-year-old Breeann Rodriguez was discovered in a floodway drainage ditch,” reported an anchor on ABC.It’s a mother’s worst nightmare. The tragic story of a little girl found murdered by her neighbor. If it doesn’t ring a bell, maybe that’s because on the day the news broke, mainstream networks gave it maybe 30 seconds of airtime before moving on to live coverage of something bigger.“You may have heard this story, Robyn Gardner went missing in Aruba two weeks ago,” said a news report.  Mainstream networks talked to reporters on the ground in Aruba, for the latest developments.Even MSM hosts realize what makes this story so newsworthy.“Every time we do this story it's good looking blonde woman who disappears,” noted a Fox News commentator.The trend means the little Breeann’s of the world take a backseat.“She’s just a little Hispanic girl,” said Chris Chambers, a lecturer who teaches journalism at Georgetown University. “This is hot white blonde possible glamour model and creep in Aruba, and that engages more people.” It raises bigger issues about mainstream news and national priorities.“I think we do value the life of a hot blonde sexy woman more than a Hispanic child, subconsiously we do,” said Chambers. It raises other obvious questions, too.“I just wonder if this was someone who was black would we be doing a story like this?” asked a Fox News commentator.As for the Gardner story, it’s a two-for-one, where news crews can fly over the beach to get a shot of the spot both Natalee Holloway and now Robyn Gardner went missing.  It’s a bizarre coincidence that two blondes disappeared there over a span of several years in the same spot.And sad though that may be, 24 people were shot during a particularly bloody 48-hours in Detroit and we don’t see the national MSM sending out the news choppers.  Also in the US, every day seven women and children die just from abuse.  It’s just like deja vu. Earlier this Summer we were doing the same kind of stories about Casey Anthony, another pretty white girl whose murder trial captivated the mainstream media at the expense of so much else.  The trend seems unlikely to end anytime soon, as the MSM continues to scrap more hard-hitting news that actually affects people, for sad but sexier, sensational stories that sell.

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