What is this supposed to mean?
Let's see if the attention on #gabbypetito and the concern about neglect of others who are missing can generate sustained interest in finding folks. Another family is desperate. Will you take up the cause? pic.twitter.com/12XEys0wDq
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) September 23, 2021
Personally, I see the return of tabloid-style coverage of missing girls as a sign of desperation by cable-news networks, a return to the old standards that worked well enough for them commercially before Trump, even if I find the whole thing utterly tasteless and corruptive.
But Christopher Cuomo has a television show on CNN and can do news segments on other missing girls if he believes their stories are important and overlooked nationally because of bias. He has the power to “be the change he wants to see in the world.” Will he do it? Or is the point to be seen as self-flagellating on social media? Or is it to vainly wish that a tweet will create sufficient demand for coverage?
Media people genuinely believe that setting the direction of the public’s attention is a moral choice. Well, they can put their resources where their convictions are.
If there is an argument that the “missing white girl” story is a form of exploitation on television — and there is such an argument — then what Cuomo is doing here is exploiting Reatha May Finkbonner on social media. It’s tasteless and corruptive, too.