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maryland missing



Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
Location: near Frederick

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2005 11:12 am    Post subject: Washington Post vent Reply with quote

I am having a little problem with the Post today, and I hope no one here minds me venting...Maybe I'll get some feedback that will make sense. Please don't think I am by any means trying to offend anyone here who's devoted to the Levy case, I'm not...

I opened the paper today after someone told me, "There's a whole bunch of missing stories in the news today..." Which didn't surprise me since I've long ago surmised that the Post only likes to cover missing person stories after big "sensational" cases hit the news.

In the metro section today, there's two stories pertaining to missing persons, neither which are active missing person cases anymore. Fine and dandy, both were missing person stories at one point. Then of course the Georgia woman is getting full coverage in my hometown paper.

What's at stake is, there's no side bar mentions of any one else missing in the area, even though there are several going on right now. This is a complete slap in the face to local people with missing relatives to have three missing person cases like this in the news. Several, in fact this morning, said such.

No mention in the Post about the college student missing out of
Carroll County, not of Tracey Tetso though her story does pertain to DC
since she was supposed to go to a DC concert (have yet to hear from the Post on that one), nor the missing man in Clinton who has a medical condition, or a 13-year-old in Montgomery who's been gone for nearly three months. Those are just in the vicindity of the Post, there's a dozen other disappearances around the state, DC, and VA which could use coverage.

It makes one wonder if money is what makes one important enough to the Post to cover. There's no anniversary story of a 9-year-disappearance of a missing Waldorf woman, or a 3-year anniversary update on the Jahi Turner case (he was from Frederick in case anyone's wondering), or an anniversary story of a woman missing from
Staunton since May 3, 1988.

What was in the Post? Was an anniversary update on the Levy case,
and a story on an affluent Dr who was missing last month and found
deceased weeks ago. I must be fair and state that the Post is doing exactly what I think is ethical, that they are covering stories at anniversary time or case resolves. There is no separation of pain against people with money or without. But all missing persons need to be covered, not selected ones, and when articles like this run, three in one day where the people are all from affluent families, one can't help but to wonder if there's biasm in the paper.

A couple years ago, there was a runaway in Virginia who did disappeared under strange circumstances. She had taken her father's car and wrecked it and rolled it to the curb. Several people told police they saw her leaving the scene, but the press was unbelievable in that case. The Post wrote updates on it, and it even got put on America's Most Wanted. Meanwhile, about 30 miles away, there's an active Amber Alert due to a 13-year-old boy being kidnapped. His mother was found viciously murdered, and it made brief news mentions. When the runaway was found, it was all over the news, when the Amber Alert boy was found dead, it made scant mentions, and the Post never covered the story at all.

It angers families of missing persons in the region when the Washington Post has no problems writing feature stories
about the NY disappearances of an affluent writer, a Senator's daughter's
dog who is lost, missing exotic birds, missing children all the way across the country, or stories after stories on the Levy case with no coverage of other local missing person cases. It comes strongly across if you have money, you're important, otherwise tough luck if you go missing in the DC area otherwise.
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laskipper



Joined: 17 Sep 2002
Posts: 1232
Location: Northern Ohio

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2005 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vent away, MM. I agree with you. Money, power, influence- synonyms.

Seems in the case of Chandra, the other team had more of some of the above.

In my area, there were 2 girls missing around the same time. Both came from poor areas of the city. Not a whole lot of news on either. I notice that one family kinda makes their own news events. There was a suspect and they took matters into their own hands. Probably out of frustration. That case makes the news moreso that the other girl with a less proactive family.

It's sad.

ls
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2005 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well said, mm. Let me just add this. The only reason Chandra's disappearance was covered was because it was a sex scandal with a congressman. As soon as he lost re-election, it ended.

Some coverage when Chandra was found, but all they cared about asking over and over was whether a congressman would admit to having sex, completely ignoring the relevance of an intimate when a woman disappears.

So, it is not the money of a doctor from Modesto California that got this coverage, but the sexual scandal of a congressman. That a young woman's life was lost was ho hum, happens all the time. I can cite any number of columnists who write just that. The consensus seems to be missing isn't news, finding a dead body is.

rd
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maryland missing



Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
Location: near Frederick

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2005 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

changed it a little and sent it to the editor. Also sent an email to the ombudsman stating that this upset families with missing relatives, and they would like to see active missing persons put in the paper at the same time, as it could help find someone.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2005 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hope they take it to heart and act on it, mm.

rd
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benn



Joined: 19 Sep 2002
Posts: 2136
Location: Sacramento, CA

PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't know that newspapers have to be responsible for publishing all missing persons. It would seem good that they could do that, but newspapers are about making money, and they are facing a lot of competition today with so many other ways to receive the news.

Maybe the government should have a centralized missing persons agency, where all people missing, and their circumstances, could be published daily. No matter how well intentioned the people are who are trying to find and locate missing persons, that does not seem what will solve the problem of missing persons. There has to be some stronger action, taken by government on all levels, to begin to reduce the problem of missing persons, and murders.

Just what action is needed I don't know, but it is not happening right now.

benn
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maryland missing



Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 86
Location: near Frederick

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2005 10:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sent it to them, they sent it back saying it was too long. Chopped it, resubmitted, heard nothing back still.

They did run a nice missing person story today, however...
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