Sniper Steals Spotlight From Kidnapped Kids

CNSNews.com ^ | October 14, 2002 | Michael L. Betsch

[H8DEMS]

(CNSNews.com) - An 11-year-old Missouri boy disappeared outside of his home late Sunday afternoon a week ago, while riding his bicycle. Shawn Hornbeck's father, Craig Akers, says he won't give up hope, but some wonder if the establishment media has given up on its high profile coverage of child abductions.

Charles Pickett, a senior case manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), suspects the media has overlooked the Hornbeck case because of his unattractive rural upbringing. But that wasn't the case when 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her upscale home at gunpoint June 5th, Pickett said.

The Smart case had an element of intrigue that triggered the national media to react, he said. "And, boy, they sure did jump on that one."

"Here you had a child that lived in a very upscale home in a very upscale community and she was taken out of her bedroom," Pickett said. "You know, how can you take a child out of million dollar home in a community where nothing ever happens and nobody knows anything about it?"

He surmised that media coverage of child abductions "may be like buying real estate - location, location, location."

But the Smart case was probably very beneficial to exposing the media to the plight of missing children, Pickett said. "There are some kids that got some media this summer because of Elizabeth Smart that may have normally not gotten exposure because somebody wasn't that interested in the story."

In the meantime, he said, there were other abducted children around the country that didn't get the same media exposure and assistance that Smart received.

"It's a good possibility that media sensationalism and how it will be received in the viewers' eyes is very important, maybe, to the media in what type of cases they do profile," Pickett said.

He suspects the sniper crisis that has struck fear throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is the main reason why the national media has not highlighted any child abductions or issued any AMBER Alerts in recent days.

For example, Pickett suspects few people are aware that President Bush announced on Oct. 2 that his administration is taking immediate action to help develop and enhance the AMBER Alert Plan. Specifically, Bush directed Attorney General John Ashcroft to establish an AMBER Alert coordinator at the Justice Department.

But Pickett said Bush's announcement was overshadowed by the media's coverage of the sniper's first fatal shooting of a 55-year-old in Wheaton, Md.

Pickett hopes the national media will continue reporting child abductions because, regretfully, they occur on a daily basis. Further, he said, "It's going to be the key to help them bring these children home."

Jim Naureckas, editor of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's magazine Extra, doubts the establishment media will be revisiting child abduction stories in the near future. In his opinion, the barrage of kidnapping stories that flooded the national news last summer were being played for "ratings purposes."

"When you take a [kidnapping] story that doesn't have any real impact on any people in other parts of the country and give it to them because it's exciting and dramatic and maybe has some striking visual - that's kind of the definition of 'sensationalism'," he said.

Naureckas said one of the key features of sensationalism is the need for novelty. That means broadcasters can't use the same sensation over and over again, he explained.

"While people can be momentarily fascinated by the specter of children in danger, that's not going to keep your ratings at a peak indefinitely," Naureckas said. "The sniper is the new kidnapping story."

Instead of broadcasting stories about mysterious people who kidnap children, he said the national media outlets are now focusing on a mysterious person who goes around the capital region shooting people.

But Naureckas said the sniper story is slightly different from that of child abductions, because it doesn't occur frequently. "Kidnappings and shark attacks happen pretty routinely," he said.

When the shark attacks and kidnappings were leading the news there was no evidence of a significant increase in their occurrences, Naureckas noted. "It was just that the media noticed them and saw that this is something that they could attract attention with and ran with them as far they could go."

Further, Naureckas said he's not surprised that the media's coverage of shark attacks, child abductions, and the sniper all have one common theme - fear.

"People do respond on a very deep, instinctual level to the idea that they're in danger," Naureckas said. "You'll pay attention if you think you're in danger. So, it is one of the most compelling things that you can put on television."

And, the 24-hour cable news stations have discovered that they pull in their best ratings if they only cover one story, he said.

[H8DEMS]

Smells like a new primetime TV series, SNIPER. Afterall, there's a new crime show focused on kidnappings.

[sharktrager]

One thing a lot of people don't realize is that the media's recent infatuation with child kidnappings/killings didn't actually reflect an increase in kidnappings. Instead it was because a couple of cases had enough sordid overtones to grab the public's attention. News is all about ratings today.

Now they have the sniper, and it's what is getting ratings right now. If this drags on the press will move on to something else.