Berger/Hacking
In late July of 2004, a former national security advisor to a president of the United States was reported to have smuggled official documents out of the National Archives in his pants.
The hullaballoo that followed, oh wait ... there was no hullaballoo.
Within hours of discovering that their buddy, Sandy Berger, was in trouble, the mainstream media went into action. They needed a powerful news story to push the Berger affair off the front pages. So off they went to the police stations.
In a country as big as America, every police station in every city has a list of missing persons as long as your arm. With minimal effort, a case can be found involving a sympathetic and photogenic victim who may or may not yet have met with foul play.
How important is a missing persons case? However important the press wants it to be. In July 2004, a run-of-the-mill missing persons report became very important indeed, utterly eclipsing the Berger story and dominating the news for a week straight. Every night, anxious reporters gathered in some nowhere town in Utah to report that Lori Hacking, last seen alive by her very suspicious husband, was still missing. Breaking news: Nothing to report. It was over a month before her body was found in the local landfill, her husband charged with her murder.
In the meantime the public completely forgot about Sandy Berger stealing documents from the national archives, just the way the media wanted it. If it had been Condoleeza Rice instead of Berger, it would have been the biggest news story of the year, and we never would have heard a word about a small-town girl who went missing, one of thousands, and was later found murdered by her spouse.
Next time you see a missing persons case blown out of proportion, ask yourself what the media are trying to divert your attention from.
The hullaballoo that followed, oh wait ... there was no hullaballoo.
Within hours of discovering that their buddy, Sandy Berger, was in trouble, the mainstream media went into action. They needed a powerful news story to push the Berger affair off the front pages. So off they went to the police stations.
In a country as big as America, every police station in every city has a list of missing persons as long as your arm. With minimal effort, a case can be found involving a sympathetic and photogenic victim who may or may not yet have met with foul play.
How important is a missing persons case? However important the press wants it to be. In July 2004, a run-of-the-mill missing persons report became very important indeed, utterly eclipsing the Berger story and dominating the news for a week straight. Every night, anxious reporters gathered in some nowhere town in Utah to report that Lori Hacking, last seen alive by her very suspicious husband, was still missing. Breaking news: Nothing to report. It was over a month before her body was found in the local landfill, her husband charged with her murder.
In the meantime the public completely forgot about Sandy Berger stealing documents from the national archives, just the way the media wanted it. If it had been Condoleeza Rice instead of Berger, it would have been the biggest news story of the year, and we never would have heard a word about a small-town girl who went missing, one of thousands, and was later found murdered by her spouse.
Next time you see a missing persons case blown out of proportion, ask yourself what the media are trying to divert your attention from.
posted by Marc at
2:27 PM
2 Comments:
Man , is that true. I'd bet if you asked 20 people today who Lori Hacking was, you'd get 19.9 blank stares.
By
Marc, at 9:05 AM
Amen, brother.
I'd wager that if you asked 20 people today, who Lori Hacking was, you'd get 19.25 blank stares..
...Lori served their purpose.
By
Marc, at 9:07 AM
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