If the article title bothers you, great! It is supposed to! There is hope that I am not alone. If it doesn’t bother you and you’re actually hoping to learn something or if you’re one of those “alien abduction” types, stop reading now. In fact, stop reading period!
The title really demonstrates a callousness that borders on plain evil. Probably more insensitive than the nightly barrage of angles and discoveries and the heap of “what you need to know” crap the media served up for months about Natalee’s disappearance. Perhaps a bit more upsetting than Dr. Phil’s recent claim to have “inside information” (which, of course, he can’t reveal) leading him to believe Natalee is a sex slave in Mexico. I suppose the title is more disturbing than anything Nancy Grace, Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge, Larry King, Geraldo Rivera, and the rest have proclaimed.
So why the wickedness? It’s pretty simple. I am really angry. I thought the shameless exaggeration of this horrifying Holloway nightmare was finally moving away from the high-definition cable ‘news’ shows, front and center, to the back pages of the supermarket tabloids. But like so many other things, I was wrong! I just listened to Rita Cosby’s 30 second commercial from her late-night MSNBC show blatantly claiming an “amazing announcement” resulting from an exclusive interview (interviewee undisclosed) that could change the way one thinks about the Halloway case. Her harsh statement put me over the edge.
Let me make this very clear. The case of Natalee Holloway is a terrible, terrible personal tragedy. So too, Terri Schiavo’s endless vegetative state was a sad, sad family tragedy. Do you remember Nicole Simpson, Ron Goldman, Jon Bonet, Chandra Levy? Personal family tragedies of the most gruesome kind. The list goes on and on. They are all painful stories whose consequences in their respective families are unimaginable to me.
And aside from making these tragic stories public in an effort to help investigators or raise awareness, they are all private matters to families, friends and loved ones.
It would be one thing if such terrible events encouraged the same media to pursue public discourse about improving laws or improving social/criminal systems or raising awareness or scrutinizing our values or developing more effective investigative techniques, but they only pay lip service; serious follow-up is rarely the case. Instead, we get a night full of self-serving, self-promoting, prime-time detective wannabes; each with their usual line of lackeys, all throwing in a clue here, a twist there, a suspect everywhere.
Even more disturbing than sleazy TV personality detective work, I find such ‘exclusive’ interviews with tormented family members to be the lowest form of ‘journalism’ there is. Just as troubling is the public’s insatiable fascination with the private torment of others. The two ills create a vicious cycle of ever deeper sensationalism, fueling this reporting engine that acts like an addictive narcotic, pandering to the itch of a communal voyeuristic rash.
That’s not to say that some really good ideas haven’t grown out of the worst of the worst atrocities. There are many: “America’s Most Wanted”, “Amber Alert”, “Megan’s Law” and many other great solutions resulting from horrible crimes. But in each case, it was the hard work of the individuals, long after the cameras and talking heads had moved on to the next heartthrob, that turned those intentions into realities; not the late-night “news” celebrities who bowed to ‘sweeps’ and Neilson.
I don’t really offer any solution. Well, yes I do: cut the blatant sensationalism! But that’s not going to happen anytime soon given the thirst of the public and the media’s intent to please. I wonder what happened to traditional ethics like personal dignity and respect for individual privacy; noble qualities that seem sidelined in the “you heard it here first” hoarding.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I’m sick of useless tabloid ‘hooks’ and empty reporting at the expense of someone’s private tragedy. Who needs the National Enquirer when you have CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, CNN and all their cable brethren?
Anyway, I’ve emailed Rita Cosby with these thoughts. Maybe she can explain to me why my anger is unwarranted and misdirected. She would welcome that.