August 13 - Pet Peeve Monday - Hide and Seek

I'm back from my vacation and am ready to blog. I'll provide a vacation synopsis later in the week.

This week’s PET PEEVE MONDAY is the endless list of people that go missing. It seems like FOX NEWS, CNN, and FOX NEWS have about three people a week that they focus on. Since the Natalie Holloway deal, the networks always have “exclusive” missing people that they emphasize. Fox usually only reports on young, white females. CNN includes minorities and men in their reporting. MSNBC picks up the left over general population.

Don’t get me wrong. If I have a loved one that went missing, I would want them on Fox. Fox News is the #1 cable news network. Sure I would allow CNN and MSNBC to cover the crisis and search as well.

My PEEVE is how the cable news networks try to “out-sensationalize” each other. They stream countless best friends, old boyfriends, associates, and local convenience store’s clerks in front of the cameras. They get these people’s spin on the missing person’s disappearance. The guests usually rely on their own perceived expertise based upon a 10th grade education and their recounting of the last three seasons of CSI-Miami.

I’m also PEEVED on how they select the “CHOSEN MISSING.” Why does one person make the cut, while others does not? Is there an American Idol type committee that says, “Oh that missing person is not tragic enough?”

Years ago, all we had to rely on were MILK CARTONS to identify or highlight missing people. That was a bad idea, because I bet there were a lot of LACTOSE INTOLERANT sleuths out there that never got the message.

My suggestion would be new LOCAL or REGIONAL REALITY CHANNELS dedicated to ALL the missing people in that area. No one gets top billing because they are blonde, white, and female. All missing people can be listing along with key information. You could localize the channel as much as needed.

Again, it is tragic that Natalie Holloway went missing in Aruba or that little girl, Madeleine McCann, who went missing in Portugal. But the chances of either of them mysteriously reappearing in Ohio is remote. I always have said, focus on what you can impact or affect. Global Warming. World Hunger, and the reuniting of NSYNC are not on my radar.

Further, I wouldn’t provide a local michigan channel option. Quite frankly, those people don’t go missing, they just decide to move on and out, and do not wish to be found.