Media / Media Bias

Hello Katrina, goodbye Natalee

Since 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway failed to return to her hotel room in Aruba on May 30, there has been almost non-stop coverage of her disappearance on the U.S. cable networks.

Leading the coverage has been Fox’s On the Record with Greta van Susteren. Van Sustern spent much of her time since Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba, closely following all of the events.

Apart from the “boy meets girl, girl disappears,” story, the reportage did have its interesting aspects. To North Americans it was fascinating to watch the judicial system in Aruba as suspects, prime and otherwise, were constantly being arrested, then released, and then re-arrested again. This procedure of arrest and release at one point included the father of the prime suspect, Joran van der Sloot.

There was a fair bit of criticism of the amount of coverage that was allotted to Natalee’s disappearance. Young girls and women disappear all the time. There is little doubt, despite the denials by the media, that the disappearance of a black teenager from an inner city neighbourhood would not have received the amount of coverage, if it was covered at all, that the attractive middle class blonde and her extremely photogenic mother received. The cable networks rationalized their extensive coverage by saying that they were doing it to keep pressure on the Aruban authorities to solve the mystery that is obviously a crime.

The day-in, day-out, coverage of the investigation of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway was nothing more than a device to drive up ratings. Programs like On the Record became just another reality show complete with a tropical setting and most of the coverage hardly qualified as hard news. And increase the ratings, it did. On four occasions, van Susteren’s On the Record edged out the number one rated cable network show, The O’Reilly Factor

. The coverage was never anything other than an attempt to increase market share under the guise of news. This fact became evident when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, bringing severe damage to Louisiana and Mississppi. In other words, a bigger story came along.

After the big storm hit the United States, Natalee Holloway disappeared from view as quickly as she entered. No more pictures of Greta standing under the sunny Aruban skies pondering the latest evidence that the authorities had. No more scenes of a distressed Beth Holloway Twitty, Natalee’s mother, travelling around the island in search of information about her daughter’s disappearance. These scenes were replaced by Greta in the Astrodome and Greta standing on the water-logged streets of New Orleans.

Days after the levees in New Orleans broke came one of the most dramatic events in the Natalee Holloway case. Joran van der Sloop, the prime suspect, at least in the eyes of the American media was released from custody. Not only was he released but he immediately left the island for Amsterdam. These events barely received a blip in the American mainstream media who were now totally consumed with the hurricane and George Bush’s handling of it.

Natalee’s disappearance and the extensive summer coverage of the months that followed was nothing more than infotainment that designed to draw audience share. The sad part is that it is highly unlikely that this young woman is still alive. Most likely she has joined Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman as those who have given their lives so Greta can get ratings.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: aweinreb@rogers.com

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