Regarding the whole runaway bride thing, why must the news media squander what little faith we may have had in them before? And why would they waste it on such a ridiculous non-story? At least Dan Rather’s misstep last year played out during an intensely heated election cycle, where he was poised to make some kind of difference in the polls. This story is nothing.
It’s so transparent that the news-vultures were just waiting for this to become another Scott Peterson or Mark Hacking case.
Fox’s Bill O’Reilly: “Woman goes out for a jog and boom, she’s gone. Do you think there’s an epidemic going on here?” And: “This young woman — it’s almost like Laci Peterson. She just disappears from a place that’s Mainstream, USA.”Fox’s Sean Hannity: “I agree with the father-in-law-to-be.”
Geraldo Rivera: “That there’s foul play.”
Hannity: “Yes.”
Rivera: “So do I.”
Nancy Grace of Headline News, interviewing Wilbanks’s dad: “Mr. Wilbanks, this sounds completely unlike Jennifer to just disappear. I just don’t believe it`s a case of cold feet.”
Yes, journalists speculate all the time, and yes, they have every right to be as irresponsibly sensationalist as they want. But I can’t really decide if they’re even eroding the public’s trust in them at this point or not. I mean, do people even trust the media anymore? Is it as obvious to everyone else how ridiculous the industry is?
May 4th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
Oh, it’s very, very obvious. Quite sad, actually.
[sigh]…
May 5th, 2005 at 6:23 am
Did you notice, that the minister who reported on this story, Alan Jones, was actually at one time in 1999, at Peachtree Corner Baptist?
May 5th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
I didn’t know (or remember) that. Interesting!