Montjoy
Inactive
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2010
- Messages
- 5,230
- Reaction score
- 58
1 Aug 09 (RotW) -- J: "All I know is I am glad to be away from the Media, at home with J...."
6 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "Fontelle has not given up hope of him returning to his home and his new wife but, with all the media circus at his house surrounding his disappearance...... who knows? That could have kept him away"
8 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "It seems the media is trying to draw him out by using the angle of Sympathy for Fontelle and also reminding him of his God, HIS money. Whatever it takes!"
13 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "Us three daughters are absolutely stunned and disappointed that Dad could not see our concern as reporters were more interested in the new wife story versus talking to the life-long family. We were discouraged early on from allowing any more than one family member speak to media and then when F arrived, we no longer existed."
13 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "PPD suggested that media has had so much saturation of the other story that it may be difficult to get them to show up for his family, unless we had breaking news."
14 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "It's bad enough that his family (of up to 55 consecutive years) has been brushed aside and made invisible with the media blitz, once F arrived. WHAT IF he is waiting to hear from his daughters?"
15 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "News media could help us contact you, but our pleas are of no interest to them, so far. Sorry Dad, we only have the realistic victim story to tell and it seems that it just won't bump their ratings enough to spark their interest, so far."
2 Aug 10 (IS)-- R: (Regarding whether Bob left the glasses he would otherwise have been wearing at home.) "So much for that idea and the medias focus and staged filming of the glasses on the table for dramatic effect."
16 Aug 10 (IS) -- P: "Thank you for your support, we are still working this case ourselves and have been criticized for doing nothing because we don't take everything to the media."
Ok, I think that one can make a few observations on this representative sample of comments on the media. First, they show a clear antagonism towards the media. The media are disruptive (creating a circus), exhausting. The media seems able to do nothing right, as well, being alternately blamed for insufficient attention to the daughters, giving too much attention to Fontelle, giving insufficient attention to the case in general. While I understand that media attention can be stressful, I do wonder what rock people might have been living under if they do not realize that media attention/assistance is crucial to the timely resolution of a missing person's case. The media are not the enemies of the families of missing people (except, of course, when those families are suspects in the disappearance, I guess); the media are a tool that a family can use for free to get their loved one's face and circumstances of disappearance 'out there'. Why care if the media thinks that Fontelle's story might be a more compelling one than that Bob has three adult daughters? And you can't hide from the media on one hand, and blame them for not caring about your case, on the other.
All of this is JMO, but I think the daughters' antagonistic relationship to the media smacks of the attitude a guilty party might have. That is, of course, not evidence of anything in itself. But it's yet another moment in the 'walks like a duck, quacks like a duck' story unfolding here.
6 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "Fontelle has not given up hope of him returning to his home and his new wife but, with all the media circus at his house surrounding his disappearance...... who knows? That could have kept him away"
8 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "It seems the media is trying to draw him out by using the angle of Sympathy for Fontelle and also reminding him of his God, HIS money. Whatever it takes!"
13 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "Us three daughters are absolutely stunned and disappointed that Dad could not see our concern as reporters were more interested in the new wife story versus talking to the life-long family. We were discouraged early on from allowing any more than one family member speak to media and then when F arrived, we no longer existed."
13 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "PPD suggested that media has had so much saturation of the other story that it may be difficult to get them to show up for his family, unless we had breaking news."
14 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "It's bad enough that his family (of up to 55 consecutive years) has been brushed aside and made invisible with the media blitz, once F arrived. WHAT IF he is waiting to hear from his daughters?"
15 Aug 09 (IS) -- R: "News media could help us contact you, but our pleas are of no interest to them, so far. Sorry Dad, we only have the realistic victim story to tell and it seems that it just won't bump their ratings enough to spark their interest, so far."
2 Aug 10 (IS)-- R: (Regarding whether Bob left the glasses he would otherwise have been wearing at home.) "So much for that idea and the medias focus and staged filming of the glasses on the table for dramatic effect."
16 Aug 10 (IS) -- P: "Thank you for your support, we are still working this case ourselves and have been criticized for doing nothing because we don't take everything to the media."
Ok, I think that one can make a few observations on this representative sample of comments on the media. First, they show a clear antagonism towards the media. The media are disruptive (creating a circus), exhausting. The media seems able to do nothing right, as well, being alternately blamed for insufficient attention to the daughters, giving too much attention to Fontelle, giving insufficient attention to the case in general. While I understand that media attention can be stressful, I do wonder what rock people might have been living under if they do not realize that media attention/assistance is crucial to the timely resolution of a missing person's case. The media are not the enemies of the families of missing people (except, of course, when those families are suspects in the disappearance, I guess); the media are a tool that a family can use for free to get their loved one's face and circumstances of disappearance 'out there'. Why care if the media thinks that Fontelle's story might be a more compelling one than that Bob has three adult daughters? And you can't hide from the media on one hand, and blame them for not caring about your case, on the other.
All of this is JMO, but I think the daughters' antagonistic relationship to the media smacks of the attitude a guilty party might have. That is, of course, not evidence of anything in itself. But it's yet another moment in the 'walks like a duck, quacks like a duck' story unfolding here.