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 a segment about it is coming up, the channel gets changed.
I agree. Britt Hume, Neil Cavuto, and Tony Snow are my only FOX News favorites. Shepard Smith is a 30's GQ-type wanna-be with his moussed hair and yelling. Gretta always looks like she just climbed out of bed after a binge with 27 men.
'Emotional pornography,' give me a freaking break.
Is that in reference to one of the Ten Commandments?
I do understand your sentiments, though. (Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, is one pretty, white, American, blonde more important than the Iraq situation, our porous borders, or the upcoming Supreme Court nomination? Hardly.).
However, for a variety of reasons and unfortunately for you, this story has struck a chord with several different groups of TV viewers. I think some of the interest is generated by patriotism; some of it comes from the mysterious "who-dunnit" nature of Natalee's disappearance; and some of it originates with a maternal identification with the tortured mother, Beth Holloway. But regardless of the reason for the interest, as long as this cohort of viewers wants to watch The Natalee Mystery, then good, ol' capitalism reigns and Fox (or someone else) will provide those viewers with exactly what they want.
Now, just p-i-c-k u-p your remote control, go to another channel, and then get over it already. < /rant >
Oh, and I'd also like to point out that Chandra Levy and Lacy Peterson were not blondes, so hair color has nothing to do with the media obsession. :-p
You are ready to call millions of viewers "obsessed" because of their interest in a drama like this? Instead of passing it off to obsession, why not do a little analysis. If we grant the fact that most TV "news" is actually entertainment, then what's wrong with being entertained? Reality shows are all the rage on TV (or were, I'm not sure), so there isn't much of a mystery as to why Greta is getting the ratings.
That sounds very Clintonian if I parse it carefully. You could be saying that there has not been "one" development. Meaning that the number is greater than 1.
Excellent point. Maybe when the Bachelor returns in the fall, this story will be second page news. Sorry, I still find some of this a little obsessive.
Nor skin color (tone, pattern, whatever) viz. M. Jackson.
Are you disputing what I said or just being funny? Honestly, what do we know today about the case and Natalee's whereabouts that we didn't know say 45 days ago?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
Chandra Levy and Lacy Peterson were not blondes.
And as Misterioso so deftly pointed out in #69, neither was Michael. :-D
And neither was The Runaway Bride, for that matter. :-)
Or Terri Shiavo.
You forgot the Calpoe brothers, they are definitely Joren's running buddies.
I think I'd start the "inquiry" by picking one at random, standing him barefooted on a 100# block of ice and while the others watched, snug up a piano-wire noose 'round the neck. If answers were not forthcoming, I'd toss a little rock salt at his feet to "give him better traction". Given unsatisfactory results, repeat as needed.
I presume the Zodiac would have been launched from a "fishing charter", in which case one could always "chum up" some sharks and then take the boys for a swim. In any event, a great way to clean up the decks.
Regards,
GtG
It's very simple, the Michael Jackson story was over, and she needed a new cow to milk. That sounds unkind, and I should change it, but I'm not going to. Because it's true on some level.
But it's been a tremendous help and boost to Beth and the family, and I think they've become friends, and it's a good thing.
I wish she'd push a little harder at the house of cards that is orchestrating this cover-up. Because there IS something more going on, I think, that just a simple homicide, and "where's the body."
Well... John Gibson was talking about this topic one day when he was filling in on the radio for Snow, and he said that sometimes he tries to insert topics that HE KNOWS are important and he said, as they say in the business, you could hear the sound of channels changing all over the country. They HAVE TO cover what people want to watch.
But you still have to wonder if sometimes they cover things up like mass murder in Israel, or truth in Iraq while covering this one murder of a pretty girl to death (bad analogy, I know).
Not one minute? Do you mean to say that you watch FNC but not O'Reilly, H & C or Greta? All three have regular coverage of Aruban politics.
Can't speak for the original poster, but I no longer watch O'Reilly and H&C (never watched Greta). I can't even put up with the Natalee Holloway stuff on evenings when H&C have Ann Coulter anymore; by the time they get around to Coulter, I've long ago found something else to do.
Or Karla Faye Tucker.
Or Jessica McClure, better known as "Baby" Jessica. She's the one who started it all, you know.
Okay, okay..., I'll give you little Jean Benet and Elizabeth Smart, but that's all.
Chances are you are FAR safer in Aruba than you are in your community in the United States.
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