It's been over 7 months after the return of Elizabeth Smart and in about another month there will be a movie about her life. There have been previous kidnappings and escapes but why is this one so special that there's a movie about it? What qualifies a situation to be so important that the whole nation should know about it? link Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
Why? Because people like to gossip about what they really think went on (I don't know how many people I've heard say something about Elizabeth doing all this cause she was pregnant) and the Smarts feel like they should at least tell people what really happened.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Doing all what? the interview or getting kidnapped in the first place? The media have been slathering at the chops to interview her since her return.
Recall that the circumstantial evidence against Ricci included a machete and a post hole digger. Everyone assumed she had been murdered and buried in several different places. Being recovered alive after nine months is a big deal. I do think it's wonderful that those other girls escaped, and terribly sad for those that didn't and whose bodies were found. The Smart publicity doesn't diminish those children's memory.
The more relevant issue is whether the media's actions will compromise a fair trial for her abductors, should they ever been found competent to stand trial. It certainly challenges the phrase "jury of their peers". Who are they going to get, the Kingston and Green (polygamous) families? Actually, I imagine garden variety polygamists are even more angry at Mitchell for giving them all a black eye publicity wise.
Posted by Lalo (Member # 3772) on :
Of course it's not necessary. Elizabeth Smart's just the latest white girl the media thinks they can make a profit off of. Wait a month or two, once people become disinterested in Smart, the media'll dredge up another missing-white-girl story.
Posted by esl (Member # 3143) on :
Wow, I had never noticed that the media doesn't talk about missing non-white children.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Yeah, and non of the cast members of friends were non-white either.
Posted by JonnyNotSoBravo (Member # 5715) on :
Yeah, except for those two black girls who were kidnapped but escaped from their captors...oh wait, my bad, sorry I was interrupting your rant! Back to your regularly scheduled program....
Edit: as anyone who has talked to me on AIM chat knows, I can't type/spell well quickly.
[ October 25, 2003, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: JonnyNotSoBravo ]
Posted by Lalo (Member # 3772) on :
Except for that whole thing where, yeah, the black girls did something newsworthy. They beat the crap out of their rapist and got away. What the hell did Elizabeth Smart do?
Heh. Are we actually denying that the media abuses the kidnapping and murder of white girls?