Finally, one of the "News" channels has taken the high road and has decided its fortunes do not lie with endless reporting of missing white women.
CNN's Anderson Cooper actually did a story about their counterparts at Fox and MSNBC, and a look into CNN shows they have spent hardly any time in comparison to the other two on the Holloway story (excepting Nancy Grace on Headline News who mentions the story occasionally):
From the August 11 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:
COOPER: Well, in Aruba today, not much happened in the 11th week of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, but you'd never know that if you listen to just about every other cable news channel. We did a number of stories after the American teen went missing, and her family's anguish is and terrible and hard to imagine, and we understand why they want the story to remain in the news. But we've been kind of stunned because every night, our cable competitors devote hours and hours to this story, even though, sadly, nothing new is happening. We decided to start tracking their coverage because, to be honest, it's getting downright ridiculous. Here's what the other guys were reporting just last night:
[begin videotape]
O'REILLY: Not much new in the Natalee Holloway mystery.
RITA COSBY (MSNBC host): The big mystery, of course, is taking place on the island of Aruba.
ABRAMS: Let's go to Aruba. It's getting ugly. Natalee Holloway's mother is fighting back.
SCARBOROUGH: Meanwhile, a new battle is brewing between Natalee's mom and a key suspect. We brought you that story last night.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (Fox News host): Tonight, Natalee Holloway's mother just received a tip in the search for her daughter. Does this tip tend to corroborate existing theories or is this a new theory that's separate and apart from the three who have been suspects thus far?
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY (Natalee Holloway's mother): Right now, I really don't want to comment on the nature of it right now.
SCARBOROUGH: You're not going to believe it -- courthouse filings today and [suspect in Holloway's disappearance] Joran [van der Sloot]'s lawyers claiming that the Dutch boy's human rights were being violated. Are you kidding me?
VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of this tip, one-to-ten scale, ten being the most helpful, how do you possibly rate this tip?
TWITTY: There's no way I can, Greta. There's no way I can.
O'REILLY: It's a phenomenon. It's a phenomenon.
VAN SUSTEREN: Are people responding or does it sort of seem unrelated to the tips coming in?
TWITTY: You know, I don't know, Greta.
O'REILLY: -- two and a half months, I've never seen in my 30-year career a crime story covered this way, ever. It's a mystery. It's a soap opera. It's a reality show, and each night, people come in for the latest. I thought it would dissipate. I thought it would go away. It has not.
[end videotape]
COOPER: It certainly has not. The only thing we can honestly report to you tonight is that a young woman is still missing, a family is still in anguish. Until something else happens, until there really are developments, we'll leave the rest to the other guys.
---
Interestingly, the residents of Aruba's growing hostility to the presence of Mrs. Holloway (ie. "go back to the trailer park where you came from," "if you raised your daughter they way you act yourself I would want to go missing too," "I'd give the murderer a free pass just to annoy this trashy family," and "who cares if she's dead - I don't.") doesn't seem to get much play on the domestic media but it sure does overseas. There are even growing calls on the Netherland Antilles' government to deport the entire family back to the USA, preferably taking the media with them.
Only the media and the people that want to be media stars seem to bring people to the point of overlooking intentional murder just to be rid of the circus.
At least CNN seems to have enough guts to actually resist the stampede. Will it last though.
CNN's Anderson Cooper actually did a story about their counterparts at Fox and MSNBC, and a look into CNN shows they have spent hardly any time in comparison to the other two on the Holloway story (excepting Nancy Grace on Headline News who mentions the story occasionally):
From the August 11 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:
COOPER: Well, in Aruba today, not much happened in the 11th week of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, but you'd never know that if you listen to just about every other cable news channel. We did a number of stories after the American teen went missing, and her family's anguish is and terrible and hard to imagine, and we understand why they want the story to remain in the news. But we've been kind of stunned because every night, our cable competitors devote hours and hours to this story, even though, sadly, nothing new is happening. We decided to start tracking their coverage because, to be honest, it's getting downright ridiculous. Here's what the other guys were reporting just last night:
[begin videotape]
O'REILLY: Not much new in the Natalee Holloway mystery.
RITA COSBY (MSNBC host): The big mystery, of course, is taking place on the island of Aruba.
ABRAMS: Let's go to Aruba. It's getting ugly. Natalee Holloway's mother is fighting back.
SCARBOROUGH: Meanwhile, a new battle is brewing between Natalee's mom and a key suspect. We brought you that story last night.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (Fox News host): Tonight, Natalee Holloway's mother just received a tip in the search for her daughter. Does this tip tend to corroborate existing theories or is this a new theory that's separate and apart from the three who have been suspects thus far?
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY (Natalee Holloway's mother): Right now, I really don't want to comment on the nature of it right now.
SCARBOROUGH: You're not going to believe it -- courthouse filings today and [suspect in Holloway's disappearance] Joran [van der Sloot]'s lawyers claiming that the Dutch boy's human rights were being violated. Are you kidding me?
VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of this tip, one-to-ten scale, ten being the most helpful, how do you possibly rate this tip?
TWITTY: There's no way I can, Greta. There's no way I can.
O'REILLY: It's a phenomenon. It's a phenomenon.
VAN SUSTEREN: Are people responding or does it sort of seem unrelated to the tips coming in?
TWITTY: You know, I don't know, Greta.
O'REILLY: -- two and a half months, I've never seen in my 30-year career a crime story covered this way, ever. It's a mystery. It's a soap opera. It's a reality show, and each night, people come in for the latest. I thought it would dissipate. I thought it would go away. It has not.
[end videotape]
COOPER: It certainly has not. The only thing we can honestly report to you tonight is that a young woman is still missing, a family is still in anguish. Until something else happens, until there really are developments, we'll leave the rest to the other guys.
---
Interestingly, the residents of Aruba's growing hostility to the presence of Mrs. Holloway (ie. "go back to the trailer park where you came from," "if you raised your daughter they way you act yourself I would want to go missing too," "I'd give the murderer a free pass just to annoy this trashy family," and "who cares if she's dead - I don't.") doesn't seem to get much play on the domestic media but it sure does overseas. There are even growing calls on the Netherland Antilles' government to deport the entire family back to the USA, preferably taking the media with them.
Only the media and the people that want to be media stars seem to bring people to the point of overlooking intentional murder just to be rid of the circus.
At least CNN seems to have enough guts to actually resist the stampede. Will it last though.
That lasted less than 24 hours.