TV news has sold out with absolutely no shame, existing only to boost ad revenues by appealing to the prurient interests of a salivating lily-white audience that can’t get enough “news” about damsels in distress — provided those damsels are lily white and pretty. I hope exposure like this helps end this media malaise, which is a total disservice to people who actually want to learn about what’s going on in the world. Guilt is across the board; CNN is just as bad as Fox in this regard.
Most painful of all is to see trash like this become rich off of this sleaze. Absolutely disgusting. Break the law and get rich. If you’re a pretty white lady. All because the media whores care more about their ratings than about journalism.
In the immortal words of Markos Zuniga, “Screw them.”
1
By boo
It’s the JerrySpringerfication of society that escalated this from what should have been a family matter into a legal issue.
Interesting that you used the phrase “break the law and get rich” because until she made false statements to a Georgia police officer at the end of the investigation, long after the story became news, she had not actually broken any laws.
There is (as yet) no law requiring you to inform the police when you leave town, and it’s perfectly legal to disappear on a road trip on your wedding day, at worst this is a local missing person’s report.
Since the media has responsibility in turning this into such a disaster, part of me is actually glad that she’s getting money from them, although I’d have preferred that she received the money from a lawsuit, without an exclusive story attached.
June 16, 2005 @ 10:42 am | Comment
2
By richard
I’m not at all glad she got the money. She is now rich because the media picked up her story and made it seem more important than the death of US soldiers in Iraq. Her story was one big lie, and when she told police she had been kidnapped she committed a felony. And it cost the taxpayers many thousands of dollars. So I say they’re all partners in crime.
You’re right-on about the Jerry Springer effect, where personal shit becomes worthy of a media circus. Cable news has morphed into near-worthless tabloid journalism and shouting matches, out to titillate and shock its viewers with pornography dressed up as news. (Can you tell I’m passionate on this subject?)
June 16, 2005 @ 12:11 pm | Comment
3
By Devi
See? It’s all women’s lib. When young women travel, they disappear and die. When women get fancy ideas about not getting married, an entire town is left in scorched-earth shambles. When they’re legally classified as “adults” and allowed to declare someone other than their parents as decision-makers, the Supreme Court removes their feeding tubes and kills them!
Clearly, we women have far too much nerve. Who Do We Think We Are?
June 16, 2005 @ 3:56 pm | Comment
4
By richard
Women should iron clothes and make their husbands’ dinners. Whenever they break the mold they end up getting into trouble.
June 16, 2005 @ 4:34 pm | Comment
5
By Bob Thomas
This is what year, 2005?? I say that because of the posts that I raed that seem to separate men and women as if there is a formula that we all have to follow.
I would bet that these people knocking women for being more than house wives have really poor realtionships with most members of the opposite sex.
I’m still amazed at how so many people are retarded in their thought processes..
June 16, 2005 @ 5:30 pm | Comment
6
By richard
Bob, quite right. But I do hope you realize i was being extremely sarcastic in that last comment.
June 16, 2005 @ 5:36 pm | Comment
7
By Am
I am completely disgusted that a woman can make money off this whole fiasco. People’s time and money were wasted in trying to look for her and she lied about being kidnapped. She didn’t have any forethought to tell even a close friend about her plans. This bothers me because if you read or watch the news, there are many cases of people being abducted. What did she think would happen, especially with a planned wedding of that size? Did she think no one would be scared for her life and come looking for her? And now, she plans to make money off of it, when she is going to marry into a wealthy family anyways? It sickens me that she would end up abusing the services of people whose job it is to help find missing people. I doubt she will ever do anything better for herself.
June 16, 2005 @ 7:31 pm | Comment
8
By mike
Very well written post. It got picked up by the AOL blog recommendation page, so you must be getting a lot of new visitors. I will bookmark your blog.
June 16, 2005 @ 8:23 pm | Comment
9
By Squeezie
If she had any conscience – which I doubt, she would donate all proceeds from this deal to a worthy cause – police department(s), missing and exploited children, or something along those lines. This is opening the door for
all the other self-centered, money-grubbing
a-holes.
What I can’t figure out is, what makes this story interesting? Doesn’t everybody already know what happened? Who cares about the gory details. She should crawl back under her rock.
June 16, 2005 @ 8:34 pm | Comment
10
By Bobbie
Bad taste for all involved. The best thing that could happen is that the movie is a flop and nobody watches it. I certainly will not be viewing it and I am sure that many others will not view this trash either. I heard on the news this evening that she was financially broke. To bad. All I can say is that there are plenty of jobs available in the fast food industry and as far as I am concerned she can flip burgers for the rest of her miserable life!
June 16, 2005 @ 8:57 pm | Comment
11
By richard
She’ll eventually crawl back under her rock — with a cool half-million bucks. God bless America.
June 16, 2005 @ 9:03 pm | Comment
12
By Other Lisa
Maybe she can join Michael Jackson for his new reality show…
June 16, 2005 @ 11:57 pm | Comment
13
By Filthy Stinking No.9
In a democracy, people get the government they deserve. Where there is freedom of speech, they also get the media they deserve. I think it’s pointless blaming the media for pandering to public taste. Blame the public who watches.
June 17, 2005 @ 2:30 am | Comment
14
By Judy Greenwald
I don’t know how she can live and work in that town and hold her head up. I wouldn’t spend one dime to read their story or watch it. Yeah, the media panders to public taste and it seems more and more people are content to sit and stare at mindless reality shows and live vicariously through a variety of stupid brainless sad pathetic shows. Creativity is dead on TV (except for a few select shows i.e. the Sopranos. I mean real writing. Northern Exposure, Mash, Cheers, The Twilight Zone to name a few is gone), so lets just be entertained by watching the likes of Brittany, Farraw, Paris, runaways brides, bachelors, bachlorettes and do I need to go on? I personally wish the runaway bride had kept on running! I hope the movie flops simply because I want to believe people still have taste and moral values.
June 17, 2005 @ 9:11 pm | Comment
15
By K.Gee
She and her money hungry, media whore husband are disgusting….they are total scum.
June 17, 2005 @ 10:24 pm | Comment
16
By DooDah
What’s even worse than this air head getting
rewarded for lack of character is the message
that it is sending our youth. Be irresponsible,
break the law, lie to officials, conspire to
defraud the public and waste taxpayers funds.
No wonder we Baby Boomers are scarred to
retire. God help us , the generation that may
be deciding our fates has been indoctrinated
to a distorted reality. It’s a shame that we can
no longer trust the press to deliver the truth
and the facts. Our watchdog has been thrown
a bone and is too busy with it’s feeding frenzy
to protect democracy . They may even be a
danger to democracy.
June 18, 2005 @ 7:53 pm | Comment
17
By Reese
It was disgusting to see this woman, who originally refused to publically apologize for her actions, being offered money for what was essentially a crime. This criminal (and this isn’t her first crime) actually blamed a Latino gentleman for her kidnapping. I’m not a Latino but if I was, I’d certainly be raising some civil rights issues with this woman. She should be prosecuted for a hate crime. This has become a new mainstream, white “thing to do.” “Do a crime; blame a minority.” Why would anyone offer this whore and her soon to be partner-in-crime husband money? Furthermore, do we really need to see her psychotic looking face being interviewed by the media. If I wasn’t convinced that Katie Couric’s career was in the crapper beofre, I’m totally coninced of it now.
June 19, 2005 @ 1:53 pm | Comment
18
By Mark
What does race have to do with it? Look at all the attention Michael Jackson got in the media.
June 19, 2005 @ 3:11 pm | Comment
19
By richard
Michael Jackson got negative media attention (not that he didn’t deserve it). It can’t be compared to the fawning, salivting attention the cable news whores give to these ladies. These damsels in distress are all white and attractive – we Americans love pretty white girls in trouble. It is purely a matter of race. If the damsel-victim is black, she hasn’t got a prayer of dominating the news shows.
June 19, 2005 @ 3:54 pm | Comment