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[Dram]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48953999/ns/us_news-life/#.UEu77SIczGg

Despite detectives' pleas to national media, the disappearance of an 18-month-old black boy with the wide smile has yet to grab the widespread attention given to other missing children's cases. Some advocates say the reason why may be as simple as the toddler's gender — and his race.

From the still-unsolved slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey more than 15 years ago to the disappearance and killing of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, the public has watched with rapt attention as many cases involving young children unfolded, often over many months. Yet Amir Jennings, the little boy who hasn't been seen since he was captured on surveillance video with his mother in South Carolina nearly a year ago, has registered as scarcely a blip on the nation's consciousness.

"Media has always leaned toward the cute little kids," said Monica Caison of the Wilmington, N.C.-based CUE Center for Missing Persons. "And unfortunately, a lot of times they think cute little kids are white."

Amir's mother, Zinah Jennings, was convicted Friday on a charge related to his disappearance and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The 23-year-old woman has been jailed since December, and police arrested her after she told them false, misleading stories about the boy's whereabouts. Jennings has maintained that she left the boy somewhere safe, but prosecution witnesses said the young mother claimed she was stressed and pondered selling or giving away the boy.

Jennings' mother says she last saw her wide-eyed, giggly grandson early on the morning of Nov. 28, 2011. He went to a bank with his mother the next day but has not been seen since. A store owner has testified she saw the boy and his mother a month later, but prosecutors challenged that assertion, and there was no surveillance video to back up the claim.

In the months since he disappeared, Amir's grandmother has celebrated his second birthday. His mother has given birth to a second child. And the national spotlight that initially shone on the case has waned.

One of the reasons could be as simple as Amir being a boy. While federal officials say the numbers of the missing are roughly split when it comes to gender, Caison said pedophiles tend to seek out girls, while missing boys often are taken by a parent or other relative.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 800,000 children are reported missing in the United States a year, and nearly all reported missing to the police — almost 99 percent — are returned home alive. More than half of those are white, while about 150,000 are black, and 164,000 are Hispanic.

Officials with the Black and Missing Foundation, Inc., an organization that focuses on finding missing minorities, said they struggle to get and maintain news coverage of minority missing persons cases.

"We are making some headway, but there are still challenges," said co-founder Natalie Wilson, who said she sometimes gets pushback when pitching a story to media outlets.

Noting she has had some recent successes pitching missing minority cases to media outlets, Wilson said she's often told that editors and producers can't promise coverage and don't have the time to run a big piece. In one instance, a plea for help to find a young missing black girl was bumped to report the news that Paris Hilton had been released from jail.

"How does that supersede someone's life?" Wilson asked. "Can you imagine how her parents would feel?"

Attention on a missing child case should be the same — intense — regardless of gender or race," Caison said.

 

[ErasureAcer]

Clicked link. Looked at pic.

Yeah, that's the media for you.

 

[Slayven]

Knew the problem before even clicking the link.

 

[fabricated backlash]

So only kids that fit in the "cute" category are worth making a fuzz about. Got it.

...hope they can at least find the little kids body to give him a burial. Cause let's be honest, an 18 month old going missing for so long, yeah, there is no chance in hell he's still alive unfortunately.

 

[ReBurn]

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2810#1

Given the number of kids who go missing in the US each day, it would be pretty easy to build whatever narrative you want to.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

There's a teen girl from Greenwood that was the last one I can remember being broadcast outside local news. That was like, 1992 or something.

 

[Htown]

Knew the problem before even clicking the link.

Yup.

 

[hiryu64]

Missing white woman syndrome

 

[DragonSworne]

So instead the MSM reports that they didn't report on the missing boy case?

 

[Smellycat]

wtf

 

[Htown]

Missing white woman syndrome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCMCJc5-jg

 

[weekend_warrior]

scary ass looking mother.

 

[Akainu]

The irony being this thread will get just as much attention.

 

[IISANDERII]

I watch CNN sometimes and they always devote way too much time to the political bickerings between the two parties that never amount to anything or say anything new.
They're also much too rigid in their style in that their stories seem to have to be a certain length and require some hook.
All they would need is to flash 20 seconds of the missing kid, brief the details and I think that would do good.
No need for on location reports or even phone interviews with the local law. /rant

PS that mother looks like a character from Spawn. How could that cute kid "belong" to her?

 

[Red]

Knew the problem before even clicking the link.

.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

White girls>Black girls>White boys>Black boys

That's how it seems to be in England at least

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Missing white woman syndrome

Yup.

I can't stand when the latest "watercooler talk" is about some specific "case" when it's patently obvious that it's only "news" because it's an at least moderately attractive white woman.