Week 10: "Where's the Media Outrage?"

So I stumbled across this on Facebook yesterday...

I was intrigued, so I did some googling and found that the January 2007 case mentioned here is that of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsome in Knoxville, TN. Basically, the young twenties white couple (both enrolled in college) planned to go to a friend's birthday party on a Saturday night, instead they decided to go to Channon's friend's apartment to watch a movie. Channon called her parents at 12:30 a.m., to let them know she would not be staying at her friend's as planned, and instead would be coming home. She never showed up. Two days later, Christopher's body was found by the railroad tracks badly burned. The two had been carjacked and kidnapped in the apartment complex. They were then taken to a house where they were both brutally raped and beaten. The details of this act are far worse than I want to recount, but it was horrific. Chris was then drug to the railroad tracks, shot twice in the back, and once in the head execution style before his body was set on fire. Channon was then kept alive for several more hours enduring further rape and torture, after which a chemical substance was poured down her throat and open wounds in an attempt to cover up DNA evidence. Still alive, she was put into several trash bags, and inside a trashcan, where she suffocated to death. She was found with her eyes still open.

There was media coverage of this event, local TN stations kept up with the case, and CNN and FoxNews ran a story about this. However, it seems many feel there was not enough media coverage of this story, and blame the black on white issue. As the victims were white and the five attackers black. Some argue this case was not publicized enough on the national level for fear that it will encourage the issue of racism. However, these type of attacks happen all over the country, with victims of all races. Consider the Natalie Holloway case, how long had she been missing before the nation was aware of it? I can't imagine very long. In this case, the victims could not have been missing for longer than 48 hours. Their attackers did not make it had to find them. Her car was found 2 blocks from the house where they took them, they left their finger prints inside the car, and they took them to a house that one of the attackers was renting, where they left her body and evidence of the attack. Had they been missing longer, would there have been national media coverage?

Is national media coverage really necessary to help the family grieve and move on? From an ethical standpoint, I wonder if it would be in the family's best interest to have excessive national media coverage. They would be main shareholders. Once their children's bodies were found, what is the point of seeing it over and over again and having reporters consistently reminding them of the tragedy they just endured. Granted, I cant imagine they need any reminding. But from another point of view, people may need to be aware that these types of attackers are out there. However, I do not think this recent question of media coverage (ie: the FB photo above) is anything but race related. The photo shows the victims: white, preppy, smiling, college student, wearing a North Face (associated with a fraternity)... Basically All-American kids. Then the attackers: black, mug shots, glaring, scary. The intention of this attempt is to make this tragedy an act of racism.

In the following 16 minute documentary by Knoxville's KnoxNews, the case is discussed in detail, but I think the most important thing I took from it was the point that these attackers were known by people of their community as "they've always had a life of crime, they were always unstable, and they were always into something."