child abduction

Personal note:

I don't understand the national media's recent obsession with child abduction stories (I'm looking at you Nancy Grace!). For the past two months, it was story after story on Haleigh Cummings. Now, its story after story about Sandra Cantu. I remember when JonBenet Ramsey was murdered and the media was obsessed for a year. Ramsey's case even spawned books and a made-for-tv movie!

According to Child Shield USA, 100 children were kidnapped last year, 75 percent of those were dead within three hours of being kidnapped. Where are the months of coverage about the other kids?

The media latches on to the stories involving photogenic girls with affluent but psychotic parents who think their kid will be returned if they thrust themselves in front of every camera they can find. These parents make shirts, hold rallies, announce large rewards, and turn a tragic event into a never ending crap fest that wreaks of tabloid sensationalism.

Child abduction is a horrible occurrence, especially when it ends in murder. But when is it newsworthy? Ethically, should it even be reported?

In August of 1996, one of those 100 kidnappings a year to a 12-year-old girl in my hometown. Her story was reported by the local media but nobody else. Police offered a $20,000 reward for information about the case. A google search of her name turns up 143 hits. The case was never solved.

Six months later, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey went missing. The JonBenet Ramsey Children's foundation offered a $100,000 reward for information about the case. A google search of her name turns up 324,000 hits. The case was never solved.

You make sense of it.