How many people here had ever heard the name Gabby Petito before last week?

[Beaverhausen]

I still don't know who she is. Sad that she is missing and likely dead but as many are saying, she is only one of many.

I'm just curious how many others had heard of her before?

thanks.

[Thunderbeast]

1. ...or Nicki Minaj?

[EYESORE 9001]

3. I'd heard of her

She’s famous for picking fights with various & sundry personalities. Cardi B threatened to kick her azz.

[rickford66]

23. Who's Cardi B ?

[EYESORE 9001]

28. Female rapper

On reflection, it may be Lil Kim who threatened to whup Nicki Minaj.

[rickford66]

31. Who is Lil Kim ?

[EYESORE 9001]

46. Another female rapper

I’m sensing a trend here…

[greenjar_01]

55. I'm always curious about these "never heard of x famous band or musical act" posts

It's, like, not something to brag about, I guess.

To each their own.

[beveeheart]

2. Not a word.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Probably no one

So much for the "they're covering her because she was famous" excuse for the saturation coverage.

[Bettie]

27. They are covering her because she's a pretty, thin, white girl

so the media sees her as of value, unlike people who aren't young, pretty, thin, and at least middle class.

[StarfishSaver]

29. Exactly

It's very strange that some people here resent that being said.

[jimfields33]

32. Even DU has had thread after thread of every move in this story

Kinda funny that some are thinking it’s getting too much attention when here it’s nonstop.

[RobinA]

5. Not I

When I first heard the story I wondered if she was somebody I should have heard of. I figured she was a young actress who was in those super hero movies I stay away from.

In answer to another person's question, yes I had heard of Nicki Manaj, whose sheer awfulness was conveyed to me repeatedly by the trashy magazines I read at the hair salon.

[Kali]

6. never heard of her

saw a breathless subject line here a few days ago, posted as if we should have all known what it was about.

heartbreaking story for her family, but just "normal" sensationalized bullshit "news." the one positive I am taking from this is the orange hole has finally stopped sucking up every drop of press/national attention. we are going back to something approaching normal!

[Evergreen Emerald]

7. I am glad there is attention to crimes against women.

The attention should not be uncommon.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. It's not attention to the issue. It's attention toward entertainment.

[StarfishSaver]

30. This has nothing to do with media interest in crimes against women

If that were the case, it would be covering crimes against a much wider variety of women, not just those that fit within a certain demographic.

[Sogo]

8. Are you saying someone has to be famous to get news coverage?

[StarfishSaver]

13. I think the issue is why is this particular victim getting so much coverage when others don't

One of the excuses given is that this is different because she was famous. That excuse seems to be particularly common when responding to questions about why black and brown women don't get this kind of coverage - The pushback is that she's not getting this coverage because she's young, pretty and white but because she's famous.

[Beaverhausen]

14. You do know that people go missing every single day, right?

This woman is all over the news. Not so much with all the others who go missing.

I'm just trying to figure out if she is a very well-known person and I'm just out of the loop or not.

As I said it's very sad for her and her family, but each and every other missing person has a family too.

[LiberatedUSA]

9. Cause that is how time works?

I didn’t know who George Floyd was until the cops murdered him and it got on the news.

Cause again, that is how time works.

[Croney]

10. You don't know who I am either, but if I'm murdered, I assume it would make the news.

National? It would depend on the level of sensationalism I guess.

[StarfishSaver]

15. I sincerely doubt if you were murdered, it would make national news

The vast majority of murders don't ever come anywhere near national coverage.

[Croney]

19. Gee, thanks a lot.

I did say the level of sensationalism would matter. I can picture a few scenarios better left unsaid.

[StarfishSaver]

25. Why do you find that to be an insult?

They were more than 17,000 murders in the United States in 2020. How many of those did you see reported in the national media, much less get the kind of coverage this one has? Is there some reason you think that if something were to happen to you - or to me, for that matter - it would get that kind of coverage?

[Croney]

41. You just have to trust that at some unspecified level of sensationalism,

my murder would be headline news for a week. 😱🤣

[Beaverhausen]

17. That's my point.

This story is all over national news and I'm just curious if I am in the minority of those who never heard of her until last week.

[sop]

11. Missing White Woman Syndrome is a phenomenon studied by social scientists.

[StarfishSaver]

16. And yet it's denied by many here

whoseem to deeply resent it even being discussed

[GoCubsGo]

33. Yep, and it's not just any white women, either.

It's only white women who come from an age group that makes up only about 20% of the overall population: 20-35 years old. With roughly half of that being men, and 40% being non-white, we're talking less than 10% of the overall population--but nearly 100% of the discussion.

[LeftInTX]

12. I hadn't, but what happens is her youtube channel gets played after the fact and then everyone

has heard about her.

TikTok videos were made and spread etc.

This gives the real media tons of free footage. Also it drives more interest in the story.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

18. Every YT 'personality' I know is a reviewer of some kind

People who review Computer Gear, HT/Stereo Gear, Musical Equipment ... and Rick Beato, of course.

So to answer the question ... NOT ME.

[BannonsLiver]

21. I had not

But apparently I'm supposed to be really, really aggrieved that she's white and getting media attention for being murdered. How inconsiderate of her!

[StarfishSaver]

26. Poor you

[LiberatedUSA]

34. I think we can solve this.

First we need to pick a number of white murders we will accept to be reported on, then double that number for minority murders that must be reported on for each one of those white stories.

Furthermore, we will drive home the problem of white murder reporting by making absolute sure the anchors reporting know to sound annoyed when reporting the white murders. I also feel we could pull a Disney Star Wars and really drive the stake into the vampire by portraying any white males murdered as being bumbling idiots while they were alive to sort of make their very existence comical.

Finally, they have her corpse; or it is believed to be her. We need to charge the corpse with a hate crime and conspiracy to deny a minority a prime time slot.

Will this alleviate your concerns in future reporting?

[BannonsLiver]

35. No, poor Gabby.

She’s the one who was murdered.

[StarfishSaver]

38. She's not the only person who's been murdered

And yet women who are black and brown don't get anything close to this kind of attention or sympathy.

That's the point.

[BannonsLiver]

40. My mistake. I didn't realize it was a competition.

[StarfishSaver]

43. No, it's not a competition. It's a comparison

One that seems to make you and some others here very uncomfortable.

[BannonsLiver]

48. Really?

I don’t feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, I feel pretty comfortable right now. I do appreciate your concern though!

[ZonkerHarris]

49. Now tell us how the sun rises in the east every morning.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. She's getting coverage because the disappearance/murder of pretty white women is hugely successful

entertainment in this culture.

[Wingus Dingus]

24. I've followed a number of RV bloggers over the years

looking for practical how-to's, technical RV advice, product and campground recommendations, destinations, etc. but have not followed the young Instagram/YouTube- driven "van life" crowd--can't relate to that.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

36. Seems #Vanlife vloggers are in it for the fun, drugs, sex...Tumblr, trade Sex for Weed!

[Drunken Irishman]

37. It's fascinating to me that people who complain about how much coverage she's getting...

...can't seem to stop talking about her. Kinda funny to me.

[LexVegas]

39. I never heard of lots of motherfuckers that end up on the news missing or dead.

[Lancero]

44. Well, that's a new description for her I guess.

Gotta say, the sheer amount of hate directed towards a dead woman is quite astounding.

[tritsofme]

42. If not for DU, I never would have heard about this incident.

It was mentioned in nothing else I’ve read that I can recall.

[ChazII]

45. Me. However, I think that is because I live

in the southwest.

[ZonkerHarris]

47. Why would you have heard of her before this? Do you think ordinary people should be famous in some

way?
Funny how I've never heard of people before they were a famous victim or criminal.
Who ever heard of Lee Harvey Oswald, right?
I mean why so famous?
Who else have you never heard of before?

[Lancero]

50. You get a lot of people doing hit and runs in topics about Gabby...

With links to other articles over subjects they believe deserve more attention... And then they go making a topic about how much attention she gets, rather than the subjects they claim deserve more attention.

Hilariously, I'd say that... Maybe 80% of the topics about Gabby I've seen are topics complaining about the attention she is getting. Legit, if it wasn't for all the topics complaining about the attention she was getting I'd probably have never known who she was.

[maxsolomon]

51. What does that have to do with anything?

If I understand correctly, you're telling people how to feel about a murder victim.

[Beaverhausen]

53. I asked a yes or no question

Had you heard of her before this happened or not? Yes or no. Simple.

Where did I tell anyone how to feel about her?

[maxsolomon]

59. OK, you're IMPLYING what our feelings should be.

"She is one of many". We shouldn't care any more about a 22-year old Blonde White Girl than we do about random victims of Chicago gun fire, or Missing or Murdered Native Women, or murdered Trans Sex Workers, etc.

As another response pointed out, I'd never heard of George Floyd, either. Or Philando Castille. Or Heather Heyer. Or Bonnie Lee Bakely. Or any other murder victim that wasn't already famous.

In THIS case, people on Social Media felt they could help solve the crime, which drove a lot of interest - and they did.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

52. How many people heard the name Brian Laundrie? its about him now too, the next DB Cooper?

Done it and got away, GONE?

Its a mystery

I'd be checking flights to South America

[Meowmee]

54. I had not heard of her

I noticed that she is from LI and paid more attention to it, then it was picked up nationally. I also had not heard of a young white teenager who was murdered by her bf about 20 years ago in our local area. That had only limited local coverage as I recall. I knew someone who had interacted with the bf before the event. Bf was harassing a woman at a center, they had a physical altercation that did a lot of damage to my friend. I believe he had legal problems due to this as well. I have also been stalked by a serial killer but escaped and was verbally harassed / assaulted by a random driver, among other events. I escaped and no one heard a word about it unless I told them. One other event including a robbery was reported to the police and they basically told me they would do nothing.

[greenjar_01]

56. 710 Indigenous People have been reported missing in Wyoming in the last ten years

11% were found/cleared the same day
Another 50% were found/cleared within a week
9 remain missing: 3 female missing persons and 6 male missing persons, ages between 13 and 74
30% of the 710 had been reported missing more than once during the time period

99% of all missing persons in Wyoming over the time period have been found/cleared.

[Captain Stern]

57. I had not n/t.

[IcyPeas]

58. Gabby has 849K Instagram followers and 3.4M people have watched her youtube video

So perhaps most or all of us on DU had not heard of her but according to polls that have been done here most DUers tend to skew older....

I know a lot of people here do not even use Twitter. So my guess is they don't follow Instagrammers or YouTubers either. She had a lot of people (849K) who were following her documenting her travels across country. Young people do this nowadays. I would like to think that any person who was documenting their travels across country and suddenly they go missing would be a story, regardless of their race. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would like to think so.

https://www.instagram.com/gabspetito/