Media priorities: Stepha Henry vs. Paris Hilton
john...@hotmail.com
http://shieldofachilles.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-priorities-stepha-vs-paris.html
Our Priorities: Stepha vs. Paris
On this weblog I write about some of the things I care most about.
Issues such as the Iraq war, the future of Europe and America,
immigration, crime, etc. As hard as it is to admit, a lot of other
people don't care about those things. At all.
Case in point: An American, Stepha Henry, a beautiful 22 year-old
college graduate from New York (born in Trinidad) disappeared while
vacationing in Miami during Memorial Day weekend. Heard about her?
Chances are you probably haven't, even if you live in Miami. One of
the reasons you haven't heard about it is that the US Cable Network,
MSNBC, pre-empted a 30 second spot they were going to use to help
publicize her case in favor of a more important story: their 24-hour
coverage of the Paris Hilton DUI case!
Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Linda O'Brien said:
"I am upset because MSNBC called me and asked me to go to their studio
in Broward County, 30 miles away from my office. I was there for a
total of 45 minutes, was already seated and had the mic ready for the
interview. As I waiting to be interviewed, I was listening to the
Paris Hilton coverage to include discussion to the effect if anybody
had seen or knew the whereabouts of her Chihuahua.
Then they tell me they have to cut the piece, cut my interview because
they're doing constant coverage of Paris Hilton. I'm appalled that a
missing woman cannot get even 60 seconds of air time because the
priorities of MSNBC was to have footage of the front gates of Paris
Hilton's house."
Stepha Henry is a recent graduate of John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, where she majored in criminal justice and minored in
psychology. She was staying with an aunt in Miami. She told family
members that a friend, who hasn't been identified, would take her to
the Peppers Cafe nightclub, in Fort Lauderdale. She left around 1am
and never returned. It is unknown if she went to the nightclub.
There are absolutely no leads in the case, and therefore Stepha really
needs publicity. Anyone with info can call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers
at 305-471-8477. You can also download her flier from this page.
Paris Hilton, however, does not need publicity. First of all she isn't
missing. We know exactly where she is at every minute (in fact, the
press makes sure of this). Second of all, the sheer numbers of people
already talking about her are mind-boggling. Right now, a Google
search on "Stepha Henry" yields 319 references. The same search on
Paris Hilton yields - get ready for this - a staggering 80,700,000!
That's over 80 million hits. Incredibly, that's even more than US
President George W. Bush with his 79,700,000 references, and far ahead
of George Washington's 20,100,000. It's light years ahead of such
"insignificant" world figures such as Osama Bin Laden (2,420,000),
Russian President Vladimir Putin (5,250,000), and the father of
Communist China, Mao Zedong (1,560,000).
Even among the entertainment crowd, Paris dwarfs the competition by a
landslide. Britney Spears, last year's number one Google search name,
only gets 23,300,000 references, and arguably the most successful
television personality ever in the United States, Oprah Winfrey, has
only 1,520,000.
What about religious figures? Well one beats Paris. Not Buddha
(23,300,000), or even Mohammed/Muhammad (the two most popular
spellings) with 47,400,000, but to the delight of some and the
annoyance of others,"Jesus" comes out way ahead with over 151,000,000
references. I couldn't find any other name with more hits than that.
So I guess we are safe from a Paris Hilton based religion. For now.
By the way, you know that other Paris that people sometimes talk
about? The one in France? It still comes in behind Ms. Hilton with
only 47,400,000 hits.
And the obsession is not limited to the United States. UK's BBC,
France's Le Monde, and Germany's Spiegel, among many others, have
given this case front page coverage many, many times.
It's easy to get on a high horse, like many pundits are doing, and
ridicule others for their obsession with celebrities. I don't want to
be hypocritical; I've certainly read my share of celebrity gossip. But
I think I largely outgrew that by the time I was 25 or so. And good
Lord, I hope I never sink so low as MSNBC did in this case.
Many commentators at the Daily Kos calls this racism, since Ms. Henry
is black and Ms. Hilton is white. But I'm pretty certain that if it
was an unknown white woman, she would have been bumped off the air by
any top black celebrity. Incidentally, for a similarly disgusting
display of overkill on the Martha Stewart in prison story, go here.
And yes, I know that by writing this, I cause Ms. Hilton's Google
search ranking to rise just a little more. But since this post will
cause all the above names to rise just that little bit, I can live
with myself. I hope.
Kris Baker
<john...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1181596772.2...@q66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> >From (pictures and links on main page):
> http://shieldofachilles.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-priorities-stepha-vs-paris.html
>
>
> Case in point: An American, Stepha Henry, a beautiful 22 year-old
> college graduate from New York (born in Trinidad) disappeared while
> vacationing in Miami during Memorial Day weekend. Heard about her?
There's 800 web pages out there about Stepha Henry.
But rather than discussing her disappearance, you're playing
the race card AND cross-posting to off-topic newsgroups.
That's not going to get you very far. In fact, it could cause
people to ignore the entire situation just because you decided
to spam your blog.
Buh-Bye.
I hope Stepha is found, but you lose.
Kris
minx
last week, in mid-press conference.
Don't think you are special.
There was also some brief footage of soldiers clearing neighborhoods in Iraq,
and just for a second, I fantacized they were clearing Ms. Hilton's
neighborhood of paparazzi.
"Kris Baker" <kris....@prodigyyy.net> wrote in message
news:36jbi.93$vi5...@newssvr17.news.prodigy.net...
Children of a Lesser Ice
news:1181596772.2...@q66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> Case in point: An American, Stepha Henry, a beautiful 22 year-old
> college graduate from New York (born in Trinidad) disappeared while
> vacationing in Miami during Memorial Day weekend. Heard about her?
> Chances are you probably haven't,
Actually I have....on MSNBC.
> There are absolutely no leads in the case,
Not true. The last guy known to be with her was interviewed by police and he
denied having anything to do with her disappearance. Now, suddenly, he's
reported that the car they rode in together has been stolen (or gone
missing). So I think the police have a very good idea of who is in involved
in her disappearance.
-------------------------------------
Icebreaker
"I need more out of this relationship than I'm willing to put in. I think I
deserve better, don't you? Hey, I know this is hard on you. It would be hard
on me, too, if I broke up with me. I know what you're losing."
john...@hotmail.com
> <johnro...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1181596772.2...@q66g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...> >From (pictures and links on main page):
>
> (snip blah blah about boring web blog)
>
>
>
> > Case in point: An American, Stepha Henry, a beautiful 22 year-old
> > college graduate from New York (born in Trinidad) disappeared while
> > vacationing in Miami during Memorial Day weekend. Heard about her?
>
> There's 800 web pages out there about Stepha Henry.
> But rather than discussing her disappearance, you're playing
> the race card AND cross-posting to off-topic newsgroups.
>
> That's not going to get you very far. In fact, it could cause
> people to ignore the entire situation just because you decided
> to spam your blog.
>
> Buh-Bye.
> I hope Stepha is found, but you lose.
>
> Kris
Wow, its rare I see so many incorrect statements in such a short piece
that I thought it would be fun to respond.
1) At the time of the article, there were 319 web hits on "Stepha
Henry". Right now there are 492. If you have found 800, please tell me
what search engine you used, because it's not Google. Look for
yourself:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22stepha+henry%22&meta=
2) I discussed her disappearance.
3) Read again. I didn't "play the race card". That is flat out wrong.
In fact, I said this episode did NOT have anything to do with racism
4) Exactly which of the newsgroups posted to is this off topic? It
involves a celebrity, and crime, and politics basically covers
everything. Or were you offended because Paris Hilton is important to
you and you don't like others criticising her irrelevance?
5) "Spamming" is sending out unsolicited advertisements. I offered an
article over a relevant topic, and a link to it, which is customary.
How is that spam? And the blog is not even a commercial one. It
doesn't sell anything, and in fact, its one of the few you will find
that doesn't even host any advertising.
I hope Stepha is found too, and I'm always looking for updates. You've
been great. Have a nice day.
JR