Greta Van Susteren Cleans Up in Aruba (re: Holloway)

[deadparrot]

NEW YORK - Bringing a microphone and camera crew to the gates of an Aruba landfill this past week, Greta Van Susteren returned to the island that her nightly Fox News Channel program has figuratively called home recently. Van Susteren's "On the Record" has relentlessly followed the mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama while on a graduation trip to Aruba in May.

Critics find it an obsession bordering on the bizarre, twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people — as long as they happen to be young, white, female and pretty.

...

"Emotional pornography like the Natalee Holloway story is more alluring, just as a car crash is better TV than a news conference," said Matthew Felling of the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs. "But this media rubbernecking is partly to blame for the public's dissatisfaction in the media as a newsgathering enterprise."

Two views on how to program a cable news network couldn't be displayed more starkly: Either use news judgment to put events into perspective, or give the people what they want, said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050808/ap_en_mo/tv_greta_van_susteren

[Old and In the Way]

1. "give the people what they want"

Is this really what the people want?

Somehow, I doubt it. Fox should start the Victims Network and they can run Natalie, Laci, Terry, and ??? 24/7.

Maybe then we can get the news that really affects us.

[GoBlue]

11. IMO: It may be what too many people want...

but I don't believe it's what anybody should need;

[superconnected]

2. Well if Greta suddenly disappeared, I wouldn't skip the news cast

;). In fact I'd watch it gleefully.

[Fridays Child]

3. Greta cut her teeth on OJ. Natalee isn't nearly as bizarre--yet.

[punpirate]

4. Time to have a look at...

... "The Big Carnival," the 1951 movie about an unscrupulous reporter, starring Kirk Douglas.

This is lowest common denominator news. If Fox targets the bottom, the bottom loves them for it. It's still an extreme minority that's watching them. That's sort of what I object to about calling attention to Fox reporting, such as it is. They have no more than a small sliver of the total television audience, but because they lead the cable news ratings, everyone thinks they should get attention for that. *sigh*

[Pystoff]

16. And a movie to describe the wingnut pundits...

"A face in the crowd" Andy Griffith is very good to the point of disturbing in the movie. He shows his Shakesperian qualities very well in it I reccomned it for all to watch. You'd see where Bill O'really gets his chops from.

[William Bloode]

23. You are correct.

Shows how a manipulator like Mr. Lonesome Rhodes can achieve power by playing to the lowest common denominator.

I love that flick.

[Pystoff]

27. It is awsome

And Andy Griffith's best work.

[Up2Late]

5. What a load of BS! Fox "news" "obsession bordering on the bizarre?"

Hardly, more like Criminal. This "obsession" would end tomorrow if * would do something other than being a total screw up.

Fox "news" should be at the least, sued for false advertising, but better would be to charge them as an accessory to the * War and Domestic Crimes. Lock 'em Up!

[Gabi Hayes]

6. sad thing is....this is what put her ahead of BOR in the ratings

people aren't FORCED to watch this twaddle

nobody was FORCED to watch OJ

nobody was FORCED to vote for the chimp

wait a minute on that last one, cause, at very least, the vote was manipulated in myriad ways

[Son of California]

7. Gretta is boring, terrible TV

heartless, exploitive crap.

[ima_sinnic]

8. a few years ago they did they exact same thing re Chandra Levy

-- they'd probably STILL be crucifying Gary Condit over her except that 9/11 happened. But before that I had written them a very nasty e-mail criticizing them for that same thing, "obsession," and vowing never to watch them again -- and I never have, from that day to this.

[Up2Late]

20. Yeah, and you know what they did NOT cover when they...

were covering the bogus Levy BS in order to destroy Gary Condit political career?

What they (and the rest of the Republican Controlled Media)DID NOT Cover was that Florida U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough (Yes, the Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country") had a Healthy Young Female Congressional Aid, who was working in his Fort Walton Beach, Florida Office, suddenly drop dead in his office of "unknown causes." Why was it unknown, because her death was never fully investigated.

By the way, the links below are some of the few remaining traces of this issue and even the fact that this woman ever existed. Most of the info that was on the Internet about her and her family has been scrubbed. :mad:


<http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/01.05B.Klausutis.1.htm>

<http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/01.06B.Klausutis.2.htm>

<http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/01.07B.Klausutis.3.htm>

[AtomicKitten]

9. Greta has gone to the dark side

and seems content to inundate the airwaves with mindnumbing crap.

What kind of person actually follows this stuff? Oh, that's right, red state dwellers.

[JI7]

10. ewwwwww

whatever happened to her? i use to admire her.

[a kennedy]

18. I used to admire her too, then she got the "look" you know , went

under the plastic surgery knife, and now she looks like all the other plastic "reporters".

[Bluebear]

12. PHOTO: OK, THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS!

[TroglodyteScholar]

13. "Give the people what they want"

The media first turned the trial into a freak-show by emphasizing Jackson's peculiarities rather than his humanity, and stoked the ratings with constant, trivializing coverage while other, far more important stories went under-reported or completely ignored in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Washington, D.C.

The press might respond by saying, "We gave the people what they wanted."

My response would be, "My job is to give them what they want. When he steps into a recording studio, it's Michael Jackson's job to give them what they want. Your job is to give the people what they need."

-Stephen King, speaking with Entertainment Weekly about the media's treatment of the Michael Jackson trial

[rodeodance]

14. whow--this made yahoo news. good for them.

[rodeodance]

15. Fox equals Tabloid 'news'---

[Javaman]

19. SOMA! SOMA! SOMA! SOMA! SOMA!

[Ilsa]

17. I love that phrase "emotional pornography".

All of them do it to some extent, putting the microphone and camera in the face of a loved one with a recent tragic loss.

[Orion The Hunter]

21. RE: Real news is out there...don't be afraid to find some

I actually use to have respect for Greta Van Susteren, but since she got the plastic surgery, and started the nothing-short-of-tabloid news media story writing and coverage, she has really sleazed her way down into the toilet.

And if its not bad enough to continue this trend of "missing blonde white blue-eyed young woman" kind of story, this almost stalker-like obsession is just over the top!

[henslee]

22. Give her a handlebar moustache... she's Geraldo. Glad she finally

hit her stride.

[rucky]

24. I hope FOX goes ALL Aruba...ALL THE TIME.

With every report from Aruba is one less piece of RW Propaganda spewing from Faux News.

[anotherdrew]

25. people that watch that show make me sick, what's wrong with these asswipes

There is no interest here, nothings going to happen, no point in broadcasting this. FOX should be run out of business for promoting this utter utter complete bullshit. The only thing worse than FOX is the nation of dimwitted morons who lap this shit up like a bunch of brain dead cows waiting for slaughter. To hell with these people, I detest and abhor their sick twisted interest in this. "emotional porn' indeed... What a bunch of fuck-wits. Fans of this 'news story' are EXACTLY the kind of brain-dead compliant slime that permit this nation to be ruled by fascists. Truly, these people are so pathetic... do they think they are going to 'learn' anything from watching this? What do they think to gain from this? Some bullshit to spew at the office I suppose. Thank god I don't have to listen to such mindless pablum.

[neuvocat]

26. If this is what "they" want...

then why are "they" skipping the news on the tv and the paper in favor of finding out what's going on in the world via the internet?