Friday’s far fetched story of “Balloon Boy” flying around the state of Colorado made for great television. The boy even had a cool name – Falcon. It could have only been better if he was named Hawk (shout out to Avery Brooks!!). We are now finding out that Falcon’s family did this for a publicity stunt. Apparently they wanted to be on a television show and they wanted to show the producers that they are an “interesting, quirky, made for television type” family. The Manson Family could be described the same way but unfortunately for them all they could manage was some cold blooded killings. We could blame the network channel TLC for this whole “How can I get my family on TV” Syndrome but that would be too easy. Besides who is truly at fault – the family on shows like “18 Kids and Counting” or the audience that watches them?
The Media Circus behind last Friday’s great balloon chase once again highlighted a glaring case of Media Bias. If you don’t believe me ask Mitrice Richardson, oh wait you can’t because she is still missing. Minorities, particularly black women, don’t stand a chance when it comes to getting media coverage when they go missing. It’s even harder getting accurate statistics on missing minority children. Was 2005 the last time that missing minority children were actually counted? In 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigations listed girls as being the highest number of missing children at 58%. Out of that number, black girls made up a whopping 33%. Keep in mind the Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and others still need to be included in the percentages. With such high numbers one would naturally assume that missing black girls would get more air time. But that’s not feasible in a country where blacks make up 12% of the overall population. I get the fact that it’s a numbers game but it still doesn’t make it fair.
Balloon Boy owned all of the media last Friday. We watched him eating pizza, blowing chunks and even admitting that he was part of a phony scam. Balloon Boy owned the internet as well. He was the Friday talk of Twitter and Facebook. And now it is Monday and we are still talking about him (me included). I wonder what would of happened if Tamika Huston received this type of press? We will never know so all we can do is speculate with “what if’s”. The Mainstream Media knows they have been accused of media bias but they have successfully claimed denial. While they celebrate their ignorance in bliss, young black girls are disappearing like elephants in a Houdini trick. If it wasn’t for black bloggers, we would never know of the names and faces of the missing. Until the media can be fair in their coverage, black bloggers will have to continue giving a voice to the voiceless. Because the bloggers have to let black girls and boys know that someone is listening. And that someone cares.
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8 comments:
meh...
it's a sad fact of life. I dpn't think we won't see a change until we begin to create our own larger media outlets and we report our own news.
Yet another time to note how BET has falled the hell off. BRING BACK JACQUE REID!!! lol
@CO
I really don't expect the White media to cover our stories. I stopped expecting that long ago.
I've been blogging about Mitrice Richardson for three weeks now. I'm going to continue to blog about her until she's found. I've gotten a couple of thousand hits on my blog from people wanting to know about Mitrice.
So forget the MSM. We already have our own media. We have thousands of blogs and we reach hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.
Great post.
That Monie has to blog about a Black woman who disappeared in Malibu is a bit strange. By looking at her photo, the missing woman was/is a good looking girl made for television coverage.
Nationaly I didn't expect much coverage. But in Cali...
Well, if you didn't take unwarranted time off to celebrate JCSU's Homecoming, you could have helped with the search for missing Black women!
While you were marching down Beatties Ford Road to grab a 40 ounce from 2 Way, another woman got missing!
PHD never takes days off from hating the guts of the gutless! I never take days off from hating that's why you shouldn't take days off from loving! Print what is worthy.
This actually a good post but your innate ability to slack off has me focused on you!
As the profound writers of the timeless show "The Wire" once wrote: "They are dead in the wrong zip code." Which speaks to whom and who we care about due to social dynamics.
As @OneChele so eloquently stated, Black Folk rank low on the "We Care" scale.
Hopefully The Citizen will care enough to pump up the volume about missing people instead of missing time to write becasue of JCSU Homecoming!
I agree with OneChele but I must put an additional spin on the matter ahead. How do we expect for the media to put "care" into us when we do not have enough "care" as community. How often have you seen one speak up on someone elses behalf? How often have we seen communities not say when they know more? We fear oursleves and give alotof emphasis on pointing the finger.
Of course 2 wrongs dont make a right but change doesnt always begin with someone else. We have to make a change and have a stronger care in order for others to follow.
Then we need to the BETs to stop being coon like and embrace the culture that made them famous in the beginning.
OneChele - Bloggers shouldn't have to bear this burden alone. That's why it was so important when BET use to do the news. Well before they started sliding credit cards down womens butts.
Uppity - People are yelling for Jacque Reid to come back!!! Black folks want the news Son!!!
Monie - Thank you, So can we consider our blogging network our own media?? Interesting observation. We need to put some more reseach into that. How do we make sure all black folks and people of color receive info that we put out. Interesting.....
uglyblackjohn - I guess when you are black you could be fine and still not get any press... It's cold out here...
P.H.D. - I can't take alittle time off. That's how you recharge yourself. Okay Okay.. I'm back on the grind. Stay Tuned...
Freckles - You make valid points but regardless women of color deserve a voice. And as you have noted BET isn't in that business anymore.
excellent and very unfortunate point :-(
What infuriates me is that HLN shows like Jane Velez Mitchell proclaim to be outraged by the whole situation, cover it maybe for a few days one week after she disappeared, and then drop it like a hot potato after that. Bitch devoted a whole hour to balloon boy for 3 days straight I think, but you know that's not gonna happen for a black girl, no matter how supposedly outraged she claims to be. And the same goes Primes News and Nancy Grace, all of whom I watch, (I find them entertaining), despite the fact that I can't stand any of them. And as for Nancy, I've seen her devote maybe 5-10 minutes total to 1 or 2 black missing/murdered girls this year, and god forbid you're a little retarded missing black boy, because you're no competition for Haleigh Cummings or Caylee Anthony. I say all the black bloggers should rally together, along with Mitrice's family, and go after not only the sheriff's dept. and the restaurant Geoffrey's where she was last seen, (both giving conflicting and outright FALSE reports to the media or other), but these news shows who have the forum to devote hours and hours to her, yet choose instead to focus on balloon boy and Kate Gosselin. I don't know about you, but I would much rather hear about Mitrice. It's a bonafide mystery that would benefit from further dissection, so we can get closer to the truth. The only left to do then is for her family to fire Leo Turrell cause he's going to alienate them even more.
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