Caylee Anthony Media Circus: Giovanni Gonzalez Gets No Attention

August 17-23, 2008
Volume 29



I'm Trench Reynolds.

I blog about crime.


This is DBKP's This Week in Crime for August 17th-August 23rd, 2008.

For the past 8 months I've pimped out my sites here at DBKP. This week I'm doing something different, original content. What a concept, I know.

There's been a story in the news lately, you may have hard about it. A small child is missing. The child's parent is in jail on child endangerment charges and refuses to give police any information. There's evidence that the child may have been severely injured or even killed.

That sounds like the case of Caylee Anthony doesn't it? But it's not. This story is about 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez from Massachusetts.

Giovanni's father, Ernesto Gonzalez, had his son at his home for one of his visitations. The parents are currently involved in a custody dispute. When this past Monday came Giovanni had not been returned. Ernesto Gonzalez was arrested on child endangerment charges and is being held on $500,000 bond. He has a cut on his hand that he refuses to explain. Over this past weekend a bloody mop was found in Ernesto Gonzalez's home in Lynn, Massachusetts. Police are in the process of conducting door to door searches and have roadblocks set up all over the area.

Outside of mine and a few other blogs you won't hear about this story outside of the Boston area. No bounty hunters are involved and no L.A. lawyers are being retained as spokesmen. No armies of media are parked outside Gonzalez's house. No Nancy Grace or Greta Van Sustern doing shows about Giovanni Gonzalez. No psychics volunteering their assistance.

Why do you think that is? I think you know why but not for the reasons you think. It's because Giovanni Gonzalez and his parents are Hispanic. That's all there is to it. However I don't think the media outlets are racist. For the media it's all about numbers. They're ruled by ratings or readership. It's a twisted game of supply and demand. It's the American viewers and readers that are racist. They salivate over every minute detail that comes out of the Caylee Anthony story yet when a Hispanic boy befalls a similar fate no one outside of the area even bats an eyelash.

I used to think this wasn't true but I was just kidding myself about it. Think about it, since the dawn of 24-hour news can you name a crime story that held the nation's attention where the victim wasn't white? I used to also think it was about social class and not color but Casey Anthony doesn't seem to be financially successful so it isn't that either.

The media keeps producing these circuses because we demand them. If we stop watching and reading about them maybe then more missing children can receive the media attention they deserve. In reality that's nothing more than a pipe dream and the media will continue business as usual.

More information on the Giovanni Gonzalez story can be found here.

by Trench Reynolds

Russert Death: Media Circus Wasn't About Tim Russert

Tim Russert: Enough Already!
Nancy Morgan
RightBias.com
June 14, 2008




NBC's Tim Russert died of a heart attack on Friday. Only the deaf, dumb and blind can be unaware of this fact. Ever since the unfortunate death of one of the major players in the field of media and politics, non-stop media coverage has drummed this fact home to millions of Americans. Enough, already.

This media coverage, still going strong, is becoming quite unseemly. Granted, Russert seemed an affable, good man. I could see this in his eyes the few times I saw him on television. Granted, his death was a shock. A shock that affected me personally, even though I never met the man, as it rudely reminded me of the fragility of life and the importance of time. He died too soon, and if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone. Life is not fair.

That said, the continuing coverage of his death has turned into a circus. It is no longer about Tim Russert.

In a frantic rush to burnish their own social credentials, scores of B and C list players are desperately maneuvering to get coveted national face time. "Tim was a good friend of mine" is the pass word of the day as the networks fill hour after hour with the burnished recollections of has-beens, wanna-bes and actual sorrowing friends.

These tales, the cute stories, the hitherto unknown tidbits issuing forth ad naseum are less about Tim Russert than about the blind scramble by hangers-on to be considered part of the story, to be considered 'still relevant' by virtue of their association with a beloved media figure.

The coverage of Russert's death has ceased being about celebrating the life and mourning the death of Tim Russert. Instead, it has evolved into a platform designed to assure fragile egos that they, the media, are still relevant. Every morning talk show, every channel on every network is indulging in a mass celebration of their own importance. And they're using Tim Russert's death to do it.




This orgy of sentiment feels wrong to this writer. Sincere feelings of loss and sadness are to be expected when a respected personage dies before his time. But the orchestrated outpouring currently monopolizing the airwaves is saying more about the media itself than the death of Russert.

The rush to televise what should normally be private feelings of loss has cheapened Russert's passing. Just as it cheapens every celebrity who decided to use his passing to bolster their own credentials.

If I had been lucky enough to have known Russert personally and been his friend, I would hesitate to make hay from his death. I most certainly wouldn't use a personal tragedy to assure myself and the nation that I'm special by virtue of being part of his circle. Color me old fashioned.

I'd put my ego on hold out of respect. Respect for a man who accomplished much. Respect for a man who valued family and tried to be the best he could be. That's all I know about Tim Russert. The cute stories and humble monologues from Russert's supposed friends and colleagues tell me more than I want to know about them.

I'll remember Tim Russert because of the look in his eye. He looked happy and at ease with himself and the world. That is one of life's most important achievements. I'm sad for him and his family. His family that is rightly doing their mourning in private.



by Nancy Morgan

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and a news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina, where she writes "Culture Watch" weekly, as well as other articles.

images: cnet; smh