Just why exactly is Natalee Holloway still news?

Maybe she was running for office? Flipping through the cable news shows for election results I saw a lot of her. Well her clothes at least.. in a desperate attempt to find some returns on TV I flipped to Fox News and Got Van Strussen with Natalle's dad looking at her clothes in her room or something.

I feel sorry for her parents I can't imagine loosing a child but at this point what more can be done with the constant stories and exposure?

Many people go missing each day in the US but do we hear about them? No.
Many people are murdered each day and do were about them 24/7 or much at all? No.

Rich girl of privilege partying down all night long in Aruba and choosing to leave with strangers = Newsworthy and horrible.

A poor girl/boy from a place as far as you can get from privilege dieing in Iraq for a lie because he/she dreamed of going to college but couldn't afford it and needed the money = Nobody gives a shit.

The priorities are really jacked up in this country.

:puke:

All thouse other things take more effort than putting a family member on TV and are likely to draw conservative ire.

Fox News and other TV media are feeding a segment of the daytime market, women who otherwise will watch Jerry Springer, or Oprah, or Maury, or some such nonsense. MSNBC does it, too.

There is a concerted effort to use salacious events involving women and/or children to the audience which mosts hangs on that stuff, and that is primarily the women's market. No, not the ordinary news viewer, male or female, but the daytime viewer, the same viewers who watch Soap Operas, Oprahs, and the various Clash shows and judge shows.

Generalizations are always overreaching, but I think it can be said that it's the Romance Novella Syndrome. Oh, the drama of white women in distress!

Okay, I can't imagine the pain of losing a child, but she is blaming all the wrong people here, especially the people of Aruba who opened their homes and hearts to her and her family.

Why do people watch it?

Isn't it like the wait for Lori Peterson's body?

There are some in the population who enjoy a degree of angst by proxy in their daily lives, and worrying about a young missing woman helps provide that.

It's TV. It's competing for viewers. THAT is why they do it. Because it works, because it gets a certain segment of viewers who would otherwise be watching angst on Maury. "You are NOT the father!"

but Chandra was wiped off the TV by 9/11 and never returned. The Natalee story has occasionally been eclipsed by other news, but for some reason, keeps coming back. Singlehandedly, Greta Van Susteren keeps it going. Maybe the Holloways are paying her. It's been said they're big * supporters.

I might be doing the same thing. The woman is desperate to find her daughter, and if it were my child, I'd probably be doing a lot of what she is doing.

I blame the media, but I don't blame the mother one bit. That's her baby.

Geraldo, Greta van Sustern and Nancy Grace to be on TV...

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Well said.

However, I think that analysis also spills over into the choice of "news" that's aired during other time slots. Especially when it's convenient to the senior news editors' preconceived agenda's.

This has griped me for a long time.

Sickening!

:puke:

white = news

minority = not news ever

:wtf:

Dr Phil has stated he believes she is still alive and that she is a sex slave in the Carribean. This takes it to a new areaa...one where the U.S. does not want to go....Dr. Phil is also looking into a segment on Johnny Gosch, as his story is one of documented human trafficking....

now watch how they try and take her off the news....just watch!

funny - I bet my mother she was now a sex slave in South America - she was appalled that there were such things - my poor naive Mom:pals:

Dr. Phil IMO, will never come near to finding out what happened and who was/is behind it.

so what are you saying? From what I've read she might have been incapacitated and assaulted while intoxicated.

They want to mull that aspect over and over. That's what I meant.

Range rovers.

real shortage of 'stories' today.

it lead every local news broadcast for months and months.

The Media in our culture wants everyone to be afraid. A fearful citizenry is one that OBEYS.

Part of the 'divide and conquer' strategy as well.....usually the Media shows the 'evil' black male after the white female. Where in actuality, the black male and white female are both oppressed by the white, rich male. So FEAR is used to divide them.

Who we ALL need to be fearful of is the rich white male CEO....that's the real enemy...and probably the ones who are making shitloads of $ off human (primarily women and children) trafficking.

the bodies were found in SF Bay, the trial was held there, Modesto is arguably on the fringes of the Bay Area, so there was a small local angle at least.

I thought the San Jose Mercury's trial coverage was rather restrained, all things considered.

And the national and regional news was very slow that day and rest of the week. So... the story got legs.

I finally heard someone say outloud what I knew it was. Her wonderful smile, seriously that and they needed something for filler-what do you expect them to do cover a Presidential race?

Also, apparently many people think that she had the *sigh* perfect life. Former cheerleader married to a family business and dashing (?) husband expecting their first child *sigh*

Some thing along those lines.

because she was pregnant. Wasn't the fact that Peterson would be tried for the death of his unborn son a big deal in this case? Maybe he was one of the first to be tried on this point. I didn't follow the case closely, but with such media saturation, it was nearly impossible to ignore.

they've invested millions and hundreds of hours in establishing the "Natalee" brand.

I'm sorry, but I'm disappointed in the lack of sympathy here on this issue.

There are many reasons this story is receiving so much coverage and not all are because of bad things.

I would hope if one of my girls went missing like this there would be this much coverage. Just try to put yourselves in the shoes of the mother for a moment. Her she is facing a group of government agents that she feels is not doing their jobs and is fighting back the only ways she can. I applaud her for her efforts.

And coverage like this is not always determined by race. Here in my area there is a case going on of a murdered black woman. She was missing for some time, then her body found in another state. This was national news and covered very heavily in the local media for quite some time.

Sadly, I think if anything that determines coverage it is the attractiveness of the missing person rather than race. And this includes the class and physical aspects.

Saying that she was abducted by sex traffickers and is being used as a prostitute, etc.

There has been no news for a while, so there's no reason for the case to be on as much as it is. In the Peterson case, at least we had the Amber Frey thing, etc.

dealing in drugs. Human Trafficking is big money! It is NOT 'NUTTY.'

her story might have made national news on a slow news day... at the end of the program

Today she makes the news almost constantly while things that are news worthy are not even on. That is the complaint. Nor her, poor girl, went on vacation and got killed, poor parents, but this is NOT a national story

we still have hundreds of unidentified bodies at dmort in gabriel, louisiana

this is too much coverage abt a girl who prob. got sick of her self-righteous parents & ran away for some freedom, as i did at her age, as not an unknown number of girls do in the south

there is not even a body, there is no proof this girl is dead or gone against her will

but the bodies at dmort are undeniably dead

the unfairness of news coverage is just plain outrageous

The media seems to forget that but to me that story is far more important than one missing teenager.

I know her family is worried and I feel very sorry for them but my god, this is just not worth the hours and hours of coverage it gets.

Of course I realize all of that and all of the rotten things that go on in this world every day, HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that those of us here should become cold and unsympathetic to a missing young girl.

Some of the replies here are disappointing.

I have female children myself and feel if something similar happened to any of them, I'd want it on the news every night too. Especially when something obviously is being covered up in Aruba.

they are frustated at the amount of news coverage this story gets while all these other horrors/new stories are going on around the world.

For example, the other night when polls closed here in California I tried in vain to find any national coverage of any of the elections going on...instead you had Nancy Grace, Greta on Fox and Rita Cosby all talking about this girl who has been missing for months and that there had been no developments in the story that day.

And of course Jennifer Anniston on Larry King :eyes:

Hours and hours of coverage every week, month after month, for one random person? With no new news? Come on.

Relatives or the family directly?:tinfoilhat:

TWITTY SECURITY SERVICES
HAZEL GREEN,AL 35750
6/13/2001
$300
NRCC/Non-Federal

TWITTY, FRED V
HAZEL GREEN,AL 35750
6/17/2005
$500
National Republican Senatorial Cmte

TWITTY, FRED V MR
HAZEL GREEN,AL 35750
DOD/CONTRACTOR/INVESTIGATOR
4/21/2003
$2,000
National Republican Congressional Cmte

TWITTY, FRED V MR
HAZEL GREEN,AL 35750
RETIRED/RETIRED
1/11/2005
$500
National Republican Congressional Cmte

HOLLOWAY, CHARLES H
DOTHAN,AL 36303
RADIOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF DOTHAN/DIAG
3/28/2001
$250
Radiology Advocacy Alliance

HOLLOWAY, HUGH
DOTHAN,AL 36303
RADIOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF DOTHAN/RADI
10/29/2004
$500
Everett, Terry

HOLLOWAY, HUGH
DOTHAN,AL 36303
RADIOLOGY ASSOCIATES OF DOTHAN/RADI
11/3/2003
$250
Everett, Terry

HOLLOWAY, JOHN
MONTGOMERY,AL 36123
HOLLOWAY CREDIT SOLUTIONS LLC/PARTN
10/13/2004
$200
Everett, Terry

HOLLOWAY, JOHN M
MONTGOMERY,AL 36123
HOLLOWAY CREDIT BUREAU CO
11/9/2001
$500
Sessions, Jeff

HOLLOWAY, JOHN M III
MONTGOMERY,AL 36103
HOLLOWAY CREDIT BUREAU COMPANI
3/18/2003
$1,000
Shelby, Richard C

HOLLOWAY, JOHN M III
MONTGOMERY,AL 36123
HOLLOWAY CREDIT BUREAU CO
10/14/2002
$250
Sessions, Jeff

HOLLOWAY, KENT L
HUNTSVILLE,AL 35801
HUNTSVILLE CREDIT BUREAU
6/20/2001
$1,000
Sessions, Jeff

HOLLOWAY, KENT L
HUNTSVILLE,AL 35801
HUNTSVILLE CREDIT BUREAU
11/16/2001
$1,000
Sessions, Jeff

HOLLOWAY, KENT L MR
OWENS CROSS ROADS,AL 35763
SELF-EMPLOYED/CREDIT BUREAU/REAL ES
11/5/2003
$2,000
Bush, George W


http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.asp

they are infotainment

is still dead . . .

Mostly females, who in some way identify or fear of being a victim, or mothers who fear for their daughters. Watch A&E.....almost every show is Cold Case Files or some such. Lifetime has two hours of Unsolved Mysteries a day and TV movies about kidnapping, rape, murder almost constantly.

I feel sorry for the parents, and certainly I would have hoped this would have been resolved by now. But the every night for an hour on FOX is overkill, and clearly just a way to "keep Greta busy".

live in FEAR. So that is what is programmed and marketed to women. Look at the programming on Spike...lots of crime shows, murder, rape....but marketed differently.

You mentioned A&E....when that channel first appeared, it was GREAT...it offered lots of ART. It was kinda high brow...now it is crap. The rich white boys do not want an intelligent citizenry who THINK and ANALYZE. They want people to obey...no questions asked.

And they want women to be fearful...stay in their 'place,' be quiet, and stay home (where it is safe). They create a culture of FEAR...women need to consciously overcome it.

Turn off TV and open a book!

They were family friends or something? And of course anything to keep reporting real stories. I wonder if they'd still be on the story if they were some other color besides white and/or if she was ugly by today's standards.

torture condoned by our government? CIA leaks from the White House? Lies and incompetence?

Would not be the same for minority, poor, and non member of a neo-theocratic mega church in the suburbs. Why was she hanging out in bars in Aruba late at night? What possible 'good' is associated with that behavior?

They will never find her. Murderers that live on islands do body dumps in the ocean. I guess we should all boycott Aruba... oh wait , I was already boycotting them and didn't even know it.

I feel for the family. I condemn the crime. But this should not be dominating the news, imho.

They are pointless and flamebait. As a mother, if I had lost my daughter you bet your sweet ass I would move heaven and earth to try and find her. I don't give a rats ass who the politician would be helping me to find my daughter, I wouldn't give up.

As for her disappearance, why the hell doesn't anybody WAKE THE FUCK UP and see that there are not only one, two or three MISSING girls in foreign countries, but many. If you would have seen the movie, "Human Trafficking," it would have opened your eyes to a growing problem that is barely addressed. I hope they keep this in the news. Maybe it will blow the fucking lid off of this shit. :argh:

I don't think the problem is NH getting TOO MUCH attention so much as it is the OTHER missing people being completely IGNORED.

If it were my child, I would probably allow the devil himself to help me find her, and while I have little time for neocons, especially * supporters, if your child is missing, I don't care about your political views.

Honestly- The baby this woman carried in her womb and has loved for 18 years is missing and could be a sex slave, torture victim, murder victim, or whatever. She's doing what she has to do to help her daughter, and I doubt that there is much else in the world that matters much to her until she either gets her daughter home or finds out what happened to her. The constant non- news about it DOES get on my nerves, yes. The constant media attention really seems to be making no difference in finding her, but I'm not going to blame her mother for trying.

into attacks on the missing woman. I've seen some truly freeperish comments on her these past few days, most of it along the lines of the old "that woman shouldn't a got herself raped" line of thinking. I've seen Holloway described as a "girl gone wild," accusations that she pulled a train with the three suspects, and the like. Real Freak Republik stuff.

Why do so many have such a hard time understanding that one can disapprove of the obsessive news coverage without attacking Natalee Holloway? Doesn't anyone actually think anymore, or is it all just stimulus/response now?

and thank-you:thumbsup:

I really feel for her. That could be any one of us standing there. This shouldn't be about what political party is helping. Murder, human torture, and kidnapping have no political affiliations.

Why can't we have a discussion about the possibilities of what could have happened--one being human trafficking or the murder of an American on foreign soil--rather than political affiliation:eyes: The night that the movie, "Human Trafficking" aired, I posted a thread about this and there were only 3-4 replies. This is an epidemic that doesn't get media attention and it's growing in leaps and bounds.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/movies/originals/humantrafficking.html

I do not blame the parents for USING the media. I'd USE them too. I would shlep from Larry King to Greta to Catherine Crier to Rita Cosby to every fucking show out there. I'd give them drama and grief, I'd give them MUST SEE TV--anything! I would be tireless, relentless, angry, motivated, and I would NOT STOP. I would pull publicity stunts, do everything I could to keep the focus on the issue, spend myself into debt, do ANYTHING.

The fault is not the parents', nor is it the victim's. The fault lies with the people that did that young, invincible-feeling, young girl who made a serious error in judgment harm, and the police who fucked up--or covered up--the investigation.

There is a market for those stories, there always has been, and there always will be. The fact that the media outlets are snatching it up to boost their market share is just their nature. They're vultures, after all. They aren't gonna cover the first day of kindergarten, or the wonderful sunrise, or the flowers blooming in spring. And if they did, people would be lunging for the remote in unison, like a Jack LaLane exercise routine, in search of salacious tales on other channels.

If it bleeds, it does indeed, lead.

to blow the lid off of something bigger. I know it's not fair and the coverage does seem to be "ratings grabber" for the networks, but really, who the fuck cares when it's your child. I'm with you--I would become a media HOG and POUND THE FUCKING DOORS OFF every studio in this country to get coverage.

I love my kids that much.

I really think they need to start looking at the other facets of this story--there are so many other factors.

She coulda been killed by a lone looney, ya know.

Anything is possible and this needs to be discussed with ALL political parties:eyes:

My point is not just that this could have happened to her, but that it DOES INDEED happen as we speak.

over this issue of women and children being sold into slavery. And the money involved is incredible. It is heartbreaking to me....I wish the Media would devote more time to exposing this issue. And I wish the Justice Department, FBI, etc. would devote more money to jailing the scum that promotes this most horrendous of crimes against women and children.

It's as if people think these women want to be prostitutes....they are held against their will. What gets me is that the 'johns' in this country think this is just fine. They know of these slavery operations, use them, and think they are doing nothing wrong....they think it's just fine that women are used for money. It sickens me.

the US is the biggest contributor to this problem and it's disgusting that they just turn a deaf ear. I don't know if this is what happened to Natalie Holloway, but it's a possiblity and it's not just something that is made for "Lifetime".

I believe it was about a year ago. It is heartbreaking. And I believe it is much more widespread than people want to think.

It's the worst kind of slavery.

until another woman or child dies mysteriously or disappears. FOXpropaganda is a bunch of sick fucks.

days. When it comes to Miss Holloway, we're as bad as Faux News.

this whole episode stinks of conspiracy at the highest levels of their governmet. For that reason, this is more than just a white girl-missing crime story. That said, it IS the sensational story of the last few months that seems to domoinate the networks that try the hardest to pimp for the WH and distract Americans from the issues of the day.

Not really addressing your comments, just throwing in my own.

There is separation of power between the judiciary and the government in Aruba.
What about the 17 year old US exchange student in Brazil who hitched a ride and was found hundreds of miles away. If she wasn't found were you going to recommend a boycott of Brazil. Look losing kids is hard but if your kids take stupid risks, they are responsible for the consequences.
Why on earth would a young lady traveling in a group leave alone with three strange obviously rich young men. If I had done that and lived to tell the tale at that age, my father would have told me that I was begging for trouble and grounded my naive ass for three months.

Neither the US government not the Alabama government control the legal system in Aruba and I can tell you that Caribbean people are beyond pissed with this story. Do you have any idea what this investigation has already cost that poor ass island?

Since so many of our citizens are missing in the US maybe we should boycott America.

:shrug:


:evilgrin:

I'm curious about what those who think Aruba should be boycotted would do? The Dutch legal system has run its course on the suspects. I'm really getting the feeling that torture is not beyond the possibilities considered.

Has it not occurred to anyone that the law enforcement did a proper job, that the suspects are innocent, that unknown parties may have caused the disappearance?

Instead we seem to be treated to assumptions of guilt: law enforcement screwed up or covered up, the son of a judge is always guilty if suspected of a crime, the non-white brothers are guilty of something.

And check out the similarity in arguments defending NH's mother and the arguments defending the Schindlers when they went to the mat for Terri Schiavo.

Does there not come a point where a quest for justice and the truth turns into a lynch mob filled with conspiracy theories to justify any activity?

I might love to see America boycotted (tourism and products) till Bush is indicted for crimes against humanity. Is that going to force you to do it? Are you going to ignore your own laws and system of justice to satisfy a world's lust for justice?

What is Aruba to do to end such a boycott against them? Torture the suspects into a 'confession' to satisfy NH's family?

What happened to respect for due process and respect for the innocence of suspects until proven guilty in a court of law? Or do we forget all of that when a grieving white mother gets on TV and begs America to do -something-?

i'm amazed that so many on DU think the aruban and netherland authorities & justice system is somehow inferior to our own, it's a bit ridiculous on the face of it to call for a boycott of aruba just because they don't follow the usa practice of just finding somebody, anybody, and convicting him of the crime whether he's guilty or not

then 15 yrs later when the DNA evidence proves the man innocent, we're all "oopsy"

no one should be in jail for murder when there is not even any evidence a murder occurred, that is just madness

... for distraction purposes...

Scott Peterson I guess is also done now too... Need some newer blood!

as far as i'm concerned, in the words of a nasty editorial elsewhere on the internets, fuck natalee holloway

Fox et al are preying on the horrific guilt and anxiety of the parents, and using this story to inject the "possibility" that natalee's not dead, just "captured for the sex slave trade". They eat this stuff up, especially if the "girl" is photogenic and of course being blonde is a plus.

As long as there is no body or remains found, they can all pretend that she's alive. Every parent in that situation must vacillate between wanting to find a body, and NOT wanting to find a body. As long as there is no "proof of death", the child can remain "alive" in their heart, even thought their brain 'knows the truth'.

They know their daughter is dead, and that their decision to pay for/let her go played a big role in her death. The fact that they apparently did not impart their "deeply religious morals" into her psyche as much as they thought, must be bugging the hell out of them too.

Her 'reputation' as a god-fearing, innocent Christian girl has been challenged, and they probably feel that if they can get someone to pay for her death, it might restore her reputation in death.

and they are pissed off because their clout with a republican congressman from their district does not translate into clout in a foreign country.

and no matter what their politics, they are parents whose dream daughter is gone forever, and they want justice for her.

the media is using them, and they are using the media...Most people are not even paying attention anymore.

"It shouldn't happen to someone like her" stories are always popular. (Ask any Hollywood scriptwriter.) And the (for-profit) news media can't pass up a sure-fire ratings draw. The public is partly to blame for being fascinated.

It's entertainment for them, in some sick way.

All this babble on this page isn't doing anything to get Natalee home. That is the important thing, and we shouldn't lose sight of it.

They'll be quoting scooter libby's novel about bestiality and sex industry training soon. Hoping to bring their ratings up.