All Missing Persons Young (Cute) White Women?

Well, yes. If you mean the ones the media decide we should be eminently concerned about. Reality is a little different. And it's not that JonBenet Ramsey, Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart, Jennifer Wilbanks, and now Natalee Holloway weren't worthy of shock, heartbreak, and intense efforts to locate them. It's just that so many others (e.g. Tamika Huston) deserve the same attention, and for superficial reasons can't get it. According to a recent AP report:

"Most of the missing adults tracked by the FBI are men. More than one-in-five of those abducted or kidnapped are black. But you might not get that impression from the news media. . ."'To be blunt, blond white chicks who go missing get covered and poor, black, Hispanic or other people of color who go missing do not get covered,' said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism. 'You're more likely to get coverage if you're attractive than if you're not.' "

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post recently wrote an excellent piece on these very issues, describing what he termed a media "Damsels in Distress" preoccupation. His rules:

A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as "petite"... She must be attractive -- also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: Jessica Lynch). Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage.

Some may find these criticisms callous or cynical, but they seem to have the evidence on their side.