Back to the story, and the thread folks!!!
Phillips followed up with, "No romantic involvement ever with Mr. Westerfield?"
"None," Brenda van Dam said. "Absolutely none at all."
Media gobble up every scrap of information on missing girl
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By Preston Turegano Union-Tribune Arts/Entertainment Writer February 11, 2002 |
The disappearance of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam has been fertile ground for the news media.
Like soldiers on bivouac, newspaper and magazine reporters, San Diego's seven TV news stations, local radio news operations, TV crews from Los Angeles, and TV tabloids such as "Inside Edition" have been camped out near the van Dam home in Sabre Springs.
The press last mobilized on a local story en masse 11 months ago when shootings occurred within weeks of each other at Santana and Granite Hills high schools in East County.
Danielle's story has had TV-friendly aspects, thanks largely to the girl's parents, who have not shied away from cameras, and home video of Danielle romping in her home (hauntingly reminiscent of JonBenet Ramsey, the little girl found slain in her Boulder, Colo., home in 1996).
Last week, Brenda and Damon van Dam briefly came out of their home to acknowledge the press' role in the search for their daughter. On the air, one TV reporter described the scene as "a media frenzy." Four stations … KNSD/Channel 39, KFMB/Channel 8, KUSI/Channel 51 and KGTV/Channel 10 … carried the van Dams' noontime statement live.
The next day, "Jeff & Jer" of KFMB/FM 100.7 urged listeners to obtain and distribute fliers with Danielle' s photo. Down the hall from "Jeff & Jer's" studio, KFMB/AM 760 talk show host Rick Roberts dropped a bombshell Friday night by quoting an unnamed source in law enforcement who implicated van Dam neighbor David Westerfield in Danielle's disappearance, and who provided Roberts with detailed information about the van Dams' private life.
The nation's notice of Danielle was emphasized when Brenda and Damon van Dam talked to NBC's "Today Show," ABC' s "Good Morning America," CBS' "The Early Show," CNN's "Larry King Live" and Fox's "America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back." Each show featured the home videotape of Danielle, and a photograph of her posted on the Internet.
Three days before "America's Most Wanted" aired on Saturday, the van Dams gave local Fox affiliate XETV/Channel 6 a 20-minute "exclusive" interview on the 10 p.m. "Fox6 News" report. The interview wasn' t due so much to enterprise on behalf of reporter (and weekend anchor) Greg Phillips but more with XETV being an affiliate of a network that has a certain show.
XETV news director Alberto Pando said the van Dams asked "Fox6 News" to help in the search for their daughter by contacting "America's Most Wanted" and the station obliged. After Walsh interviewed the van Dams, they granted Channel 6's request for the one-on-one sit-down interview, Pando said.
In no way can Channel 6 be faulted for this. After all, CBS affiliate KFMB/Channel 8 capitalizes and cross-promotes "Survivor" on its news shows, and NBC-owned KNSD/Channel 39 has been doing the same with the Winter Olympics.
Phillips' interview was shown in bits and pieces during the hour-long evening newscast. At one point, he titillated viewers by saying, "After a short break, the parents of the little girl address rumors on the Internet and in the media that they' re both swingers, and if they believe those rumors are significant to the investigation."
Phillips deserves kudos for apparently being the first to go down a path other media outlets were avoiding.
But instead of asking the van Dams directly, "Are you swingers?" or "Are you members of a couples' husband-wife swapping club?" Phillips said, "You've heard the rumors. As there are in many cases that receive national attention, whether they are true or not, do they have any significance to the investigation in who may have kidnapped Danielle?"
Brenda van Dam answered by saying, "They have absolutely nothing to do with this investigation. Rumors are rumors. And I just pray they are not taking the focus off of finding Danielle."
Phillips followed up with, "No romantic involvement ever with Mr. Westerfield?"
"None," Brenda van Dam said. "Absolutely none at all."
Westerfield has been besieged by the media, too. TV cameras and reporters repeatedly have blocked his way every time he' s stepped in or out of his home. Early in the investigation, detectives twice searched Westerfield' s home. Once, they removed 13 bags of property, seized two vehicles and took him on a tour of the desert where he said he spent the weekend of Feb. 2 and 3.
During the Phillips interview, the van Dams praised John Walsh, host of "America' s Most Wanted." They called Walsh "a wonderful man" and "a great person."
Obviously, Walsh empathizes with the van Dams. In 1981, Walsh and his wife, Reve, were plunged into the national spotlight when their 6-year-old son, Adam, was abducted and later found murdered.
In the case of Danielle van Dam, it seems, at least by watching TV, that an entire nation is praying her story doesn' t end the same way.