Posted on 08/08/2005 12:08:56 PM PDT by LibWhacker
NEW YORK (AP) - 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.
But while doing this, Van Susteren has been rewarded with her biggest audiences since making the switch from CNN three years ago.
She averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers a night in July, up 58 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN's Aaron Brown used to put up a tough fight in the time slot; now Van Susteren routinely triples his audience. She narrowly missed 3 million on July 26, her biggest audience this year.
"On the Record" even topped Fox's prime-time king "The O'Reilly Factor" eight times, although Bill O'Reilly was off on four of those nights.
"I'm always happy when the viewers are happy," Van Susteren said. "I obviously don't program for the people in the newsroom or my friends or the people I went to law school with. I program for the viewers."
It's not just Nielsen that confirms interest in the Holloway story. Van Susteren said she spends an hour or two a day combing through e-mails from viewers on the case, and they often supply her with good questions.
The mystery plays to her strengths as a lawyer.
"For me, it's sort of an intellectual challenge," she said. "Where is she? How did she disappear? Did somebody drop a date rape drug in her drink? Did she walk off? Is this not really a homicide but a missing person? ... I could go on. These are fascinating to me and they're obviously fascinating to the viewers."
Desperate to learn what happened to Natalee, the Holloway family has been grateful for the interest and available to help fill hours of airtime.
"Greta has gone above and beyond to publicize this case and keep people interested," said Paul Reynolds, Natalee's uncle. "Getting involved the way she has been is an incredible effort. She's keeping people interested and keeping people looking."
The Aruban government hasn't been happy with all the coverage, believing much of it makes the authorities look amateurish and unprofessional, but Van Susteren has government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg's respect. "Even though she is aggressive, she will try to get both sides of a story," he said.
The case has all the elements of a classic summer page-turner: the bright-eyed girl whose search for fun may have gone horribly wrong, a privileged Dutch boy who saw her before she disappeared but claims innocence, authorities following several hot and cold leads.
Without being a regular, tuning into Van Susteren's show many nights is like opening up a mystery novel in the middle.
It's all a little baffling to those who didn't buy the book.
"I think she's registered to vote in Aruba now," joked NBC News reporter Josh Mankiewicz, who narrated a "Dateline NBC" report examining why television networks pay an inordinate amount of attention to missing white women.
With war and terrorism in the news, critics wonder how one missing person case can so dominate a news program. Even on the night President Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, "On the Record" spent far more time on Holloway.
Her name came up 178 times during a computer search of "On the Record" transcripts from the past two months, only seven times for the same period on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC. The count was 434 times for Fox's three prime-time news shows; 50 for CNN's.
"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.
It's hard to say whether Van Susteren's ratings grew because she spent more time on the case or whether she spent more time on the case because the ratings grew, said Bill Shine, Fox News Channel's vice president of production.
Probably a little of both, he said.
"I don't know what you're doing this weekend, say you're at a beach or in the deli, but what do you think people are going to ask you - what do you think is going to happen with the Roberts nomination next month or what's going on with that story in Aruba?" Shine said. "I think my money would be on Aruba."
Rosenstiel concedes he can't understand the intense interest in the Holloway story. "It's just a classic tabloid story that they're milking and if that's the way you want to make your living, fine," he said.
Criticism of cable networks for a slavish devotion to a story, whether it merits the attention or not, is nothing new; just insert the names Chandra Levy or Laci Peterson for Holloway. One of many reasons why Fox has been able to soundly beat CNN in the ratings with a considerably smaller news staff is that viewers respond more to this approach.
"Maybe part of their brilliance is they're not as guilt-ridden about it," Rosenstiel said.
If the girl had been fat and ugly, the media wouldn't give a d*am about her.
There has not been a single development in this case in over 60 days! NOT ONE!
how is that different than the cases the 50 states bungle?
"The hosts are going to go where the ratings are and as long as there's an audience for this stuff (and a big one, at that) then hosts will continue to devote whole segments and indeed HOURS to this type of story."
Exactly. If people would watch, they'd broadcast paint drying on a fence, or grass growing. The only thing the tv people care about is production costs, and viewership. It is how they make money.
I agree with you. It's like the media are monkeys swinging from one goofy story to the next. Lacee Peterson, Michael Jackson, Robert Blake and now Holloway. Hey, I'm sorry she's missing, too, but I don't need to hear about it 8 hours per day, every day. Not a priority.
This could have happened anywhere in America.
I remember Mark Furman's statements a few weeks back. He said that the local authorities had bungled this thing royally, that this would not have happened in any large America city.
I was thinking, Aruba is not a large American city, but it's pretty ironic that the guy who screwed up the OJ Simpson investigation in the large American city of Los Angeles and ended up helping him get off now accuses Aruba authorities of screwing this up.
There. I just solved the case. Now let's move on to something else.
Still, I'm not watching that irritating Greta Van Schlushtering no matter what story she covers.
I'm with you. It's a tragedy. I feel sorry for the Holloway family. This had got to be agonizing,undoubtedly. BUT..
what about the SPC Maupin, U.S. Army family?? They have a son MIA in Iraq and the MSM doesn't seem to care much. SPC Maupin was doing his duty for his country when he disappeared in a convoy attack. Someone explain to me why his disappearance is of no importance compared to a drunk teenager who wandered off with strangers in the middle of the night in a foreign country.
Where's the 24/7 wall to wall covearge and calls for answers for a missing soldier??
Americans should boycott the Holloway story period.
This is the biggest non-event ever.
Mohammedans slaughtering other Mohammedans and Infidels everyday, all across the world, and idiotic Faux News can't shut up about "Natalee" or Michael Jackson, and every other idiot event out there.
The Holloway situation is tragic. Her poor family. I have much sympathy for them.
But it is NOT, in my view, a news story that affects the average American as, say, oil prices or the terrorist attacks do.
I think the wall to wall coverage is exploitative and sensationalistic, as many posters do. But someone is watching it!
Greta may give herself a bad name for hyping a "tabloid" story, and she may deserve it, but the people encouraging this by giving her great ratings are the ones I'd blame.
I've been wondering how she comes up with such excellent questions during her missing-cheerleader shows, but never once managed to ask a single good one during the entire Clinton impeachment scandal.
No doubt. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Just because it's news doesn't mean it's also a business..
My sister is glued to this story.
The only way that I know about it is because of posts on Free Republic. My husband and I don't watch much news programs, let alone the extended stuff throughout the night on Fox of CNN.
Nothing like a good tragedy and the endless reporting of it, to make people happy...
Agreed!
You don't understand the constant coverage? As you are obviously a constant viewer, that's puzzling.
Not defending Greta at all...the only thing I catch on occasion is Brit Hume...but she's just tapping into something that appeals to a lot of people: a who-done-it.
She's also doing it at a time when the other channels are slogging through the quagmire ;) of Rove & Roberts.
A criminal mystery beats a political misery every time...
I have not watched one minute of Natalee coverage. I do however see a bunch of 30 second updates in my other viewings and promos for upcoming shows that evening and what they are going to be discussing about Natalee. No change in 2 months.
LOL
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