Has truth about the motivations of some media been revealed in how it is handling LaToyia Figueroa’s disappearence? Read Ol Cranky and Attytood on Carlson – you decide. For most of my readers, this won’t shock you. For others, it will leave you raging mad.
This is the transcript for Wednesday’s show, the one for Thursday isn’t up yet, but it is even more revealing as SpinDentist from the All Spin Zone goes toe to toe with them:
CARLSON: All right, but we start with the tale of two missing women tonight, the first, of course, Natalee Holloway, missing in Aruba since May 30.
Authorities today drained a pond near the Marriott Hotel on the island, so far, apparently, to no avail.
The missing woman is 24-year-old Latoyia Figueroa. She’s pregnant and the mother of one. She disappeared nine days ago in Philadelphia. The search for Latoyia intensified after a man named Richard Blair began blogging about her because of her race and her background.
And his point was the obvious one. And it is that black women from city centers, from urban areas who disappear get none of the coverage that like Natalee Holloway get, who are obviously from a different demographic. And, you know, it’s impossible to deny the truth of this.
The point, I guess, I would make is, I think we may be overstating the effect of media attention on these cases. You can think of missing women cases, Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway, for that matter, that didn’t make all the difference. These women have not been found. They made all the difference for us in the press. We got great ratings.
CRAMER: Right.
CARLSON: But it didn’t solve the crime.
CRAMER: I think we got to focus on this ratings issue for a second, because I don’t think people—we all—we all understand this because we’re in the business. I didn’t get.
If you can get a huge number of people watching a particular story, it gives you the license to do a lot of other stories. Now, some people abuse the license by going to Aruba every single night, as far as I’m concerned. But I have to—I—I—I love programing that gets watched.
CARLSON: Yes. I do, too.
CRAMER: So, I’m not going to damn this kind of story.
CARLSON: I’m not either.
MADDOW: No. And the media makes decisions based on what is going to sell advertising. And so, what is going to…
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: It’s commercialism.
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: Isn’t that why we have CBS and that thing, that radio air network that you’re on?
MADDOW: That thing that I’m on? Yes, I can never remember…
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: It’s only on Sirius Satellite. That’s the problem, right?
MADDOW: No, we’re not on Sirius.
CRAMER: Oh. Oh, OK.
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: I was close, close.
MADDOW: If you must know, 1190 in New York, if you need to know.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: Good luck.
(CROSSTALK)
MADDOW: Thank you. But, listen, but, see, you can’t blame…
CRAMER: You worked that in.
MADDOW: You can’t blame the media in the sense of what they decide to cover. But you have to admit that it does—I think it does drive the police coverage and I think it does drive the resources. We wouldn’t be draining that pond in Aruba…
CARLSON: Yes. No, you’re right.
MADDOW: … if Natalee Holloway wasn’t such a big story.
CARLSON: You’re right. However…
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: That’s breaking news. Did you say just they drained the pond in Aruba?
CARLSON: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: That’s breaking news.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: You obviously—you obviously don’t watch cable, because, Jim, that was breaking news last night.
(LAUGHTER)
CRAMER: No, you can slug breaking news whenever you want and—it’s also first on MSNBC.
CARLSON: Exactly.
MADDOW: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: That’s right.
(CROSSTALK)
MADDOW: … team coverage right now.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: I do think our viewers should know…
CRAMER: SWAT team coverage. Excuse me.
CARLSON: People who don’t—people who don’t work in the press who look at this and immediately draw the conclusion that people who work in the press are racist ought to know there’s another dynamic involved here. And it is this. Things that are unusual or perceived to be unusual are the ones that are considered news.
It’s like planes that land safely aren’t news. When someone, not just a black person or a Hispanic person, but someone who lives in a tough neighborhood, is injured in a crime, the feeling, right or not—or wrong—and it’s probably wrong—is, this is a more common occurrence than if it were to happen in a suburban area.
MADDOW: But it’s the per—again, it’s the perception. We’ve got a woman who has been missing for nine days. She’s pregnant. She’s a young mother. It has all the components of the other stories that get covered. But because of the race, because she’s from West Philly, it’s not getting covered.
CARLSON: But…
MADDOW: So, people are trying to drive…
CARLSON: But…
MADDOW: … the media…
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: But the truth is, we are covering it. It was on our air today. And it’s on our air…
MADDOW: Because of an enterprising blogger.
CARLSON: It’s…
CRAWFORD: Where would you rather vacation, Aruba or West Philly?
MADDOW: West Philly has…
(CROSSTALK)
CRAMER: Forty-second and Baltimore is nothing like Aruba.
(LAUGHTER)
It’s an obvious answer. Natalie is white. Nobody will break there back searching for a poor non-white woman. It’s sad, it isn’t right, but this is the cold hard reality.
Same holds true for rich vs poor. If your’re poor and get arrested by the police and can’t afford bail or a lawyer, you will sit in jail, and probably do some time. You are considered guilty until proven innocent. If you’re rich, you’re innocent until proven innocent; even if guilty.
That’s the way this system works.
As I said, it still isn’t right.
Not only is it wrong, the fact that these two clowns appear to be laughing over the issue is… well, it’s a sad reflection of our dominant culture at this moment in time. The discussion of how commerce drives the coverage is honest and to some degree I accept it because I’ve yet to see a better proposition. OTOH I wonder if the casual acceptance of inner city violence helps perpetuate such behavior when a strong public visibility might in fact lead to change.
I can’t believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $58637. Isn’t that crazy!