Why Are We Surprised When White Preppy Guys Turn Out to Be Serial Killers?
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Sparks
May 6, 2009, 1:39:45 PM5/6/09
to Serial Predators and True Crime
Why Are We Surprised When White Preppy Guys Turn Out to Be Serial
Killers?
By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's Blog. Posted May
6, 2009.
Philip Markoff is just like 85% of U.S. serial killers -- young, white
and male. When will we get that these guys are the rule, not the
exception? Tools
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AlterNet Social Networks:
(Handsome and clean cut, or creepy freakin' loner? If you're a news
editor, the former; if you're me and everyone I know, the latter.)
The New York Times described alleged killer Philip Markoff as having
led a "seemingly normal" life before he was arrested for killing a
woman he'd met through Craigslist and for robbing at least two others.
The New York Daily News described Markoff as "clean cut" and "a high-
achieving dentist's son." The Boston Globe also described the shaggy-
haired Markoff as "clean cut" -- as did countless other media outlets.
Politico.com called Markoff "all-American," while the Associated Press
and dozens of others called him "handsome"; PR Insider said, simply,
that "by all appearances, he had it all."
Over and over again, coast to coast, American media outlets told us
how good-looking, smart and "normal" Markoff was, or should have been.
As I read and watched the media coverage of the 22-year-old alleged
killer, I was stunned -- though not surprised -- by the fawning tone
taken by the nation's reporters.
After all, given the available information, Markoff could have been
painted as weird, anti-social, woman-hater, irresponsible, deeply in
debt, broke and in the midst of eviction from his apartment. He could
have been presented as a stone-faced, emotionless creep who scared
classmates by forcing kisses on them and had a long history of strange
behavior.
Hell, one look at the guy at a bar, and most women I know would have
shuddered and walked the other way.
But Markoff wasn't served up to the public this way by the media.
Rather, Markoff was served by the media on a silver platter, described
as a great-looking, charming, rich guy (none of which were true),
whose alleged crimes were ostensibly all the more shocking for one
simple and disturbing reason: Markoff had stepped outside of our
racist culture's perceived norm for his type.
I'll say it again, in plain language: In the mythology of white male
editors, guys like Markoff don't kill. They golf. With newspaper
editors. Most of whom look like Markoff.
The hidden code in the news coverage of Markoff, as it was for "preppy
killer" Robert Chambers and countless other white male killers, has
been clear: tall, young white guys, especially middle-class or wealthy
ones in college, just don't do stuff like this. Except that they do.
History inconveniently proves the U.S. media perception of privileged
white men as nonviolent rulers of the earth to be counter to fact.
The United States has produced more serial killers than any other
nation on earth, and 85 percent of them have been white men, according
to a study by Apsche. The average age that serial killers take their
first victim is 28; 62 percent target strangers exclusively and 71
percent operate in a specific geographic area.
From this description, it appears that Markoff, rather than being the
shocking exception to an imaginary rule where white guys are the good
guys, was pretty much the classic manifestation of the real rule of
creepy serial criminals of a certain type. Not to mention that this
nation was created through the rape, murder, robbery and enslavement
of dark-skinned people, by guys who looked like Markoff.
(It is estimated that 100 million Native Americans were slaughtered by
European "explorers," and 50 million Africans perished as the result
of the American slave trade. None of this, however, seems to have any
impact on the media's continued belief that educated white men are
nonviolent.)
So, why the disconnect from reality among the media? That's easy.
The media has long been in the business of selling perception over
truth, especially when it comes to issues of race, socioeconomic class
and sex. If you wish to know the myths and prejudices of a time, read
its newspapers. If you wish for the truths, read its poetry.
Sexism plays a part in the media coverage, too. That Markoff targeted
women selling escort services only helped the media to see him as a
good guy led astray by Jezebels.
In her book, Virgin or Vamp: How the Media Cover Sex Crimes, Columbia
University journalism Professor Helen Benedict beautifully illustrates
the distinctions placed upon victims and perpetrators of sex crimes,
depending upon the reputation, dress, race, occupation and economic
class of the female victim.
In cases such as the Markoff slaying and robberies, the underlying
message in media coverage tends to be that the women were somehow
asking for it. In presenting Markoff as "handsome," this mythology is
underscored; after all, a handsome guy doesn't need an escort service.
The women must have been asking for it.
Benedict places the blame for this sort of media coverage on the fact
that most editors, reporters and copy editors in the national media
are white men who find themselves relating, at a visceral level, to
the alleged perpetrators. Thus, the media's description of Markoff as
"normal."
Whose normal? Normal to white male editors who live in white
neighborhoods and have only white friends, one assumes.
If ever there was an argument for the need for increased diversity in
America's newsrooms, it is the recent coverage of Markoff.
Sadly, we are nowhere near such a goal. In fact, fewer minorities work
in the news media now than 10 years ago, according to a recent report
in Columbia Journalism Review.
In an increasingly nonwhite America, you do have to wonder if
blatantly biased news coverage of alleged criminals like Markoff have
anything to do with one after another newspaper filing for bankruptcy
or outright closing down.
Killers?
By Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's Blog. Posted May
6, 2009.
Philip Markoff is just like 85% of U.S. serial killers -- young, white
and male. When will we get that these guys are the rule, not the
exception? Tools
Share and save this post:
AlterNet Social Networks:
(Handsome and clean cut, or creepy freakin' loner? If you're a news
editor, the former; if you're me and everyone I know, the latter.)
The New York Times described alleged killer Philip Markoff as having
led a "seemingly normal" life before he was arrested for killing a
woman he'd met through Craigslist and for robbing at least two others.
The New York Daily News described Markoff as "clean cut" and "a high-
achieving dentist's son." The Boston Globe also described the shaggy-
haired Markoff as "clean cut" -- as did countless other media outlets.
Politico.com called Markoff "all-American," while the Associated Press
and dozens of others called him "handsome"; PR Insider said, simply,
that "by all appearances, he had it all."
Over and over again, coast to coast, American media outlets told us
how good-looking, smart and "normal" Markoff was, or should have been.
As I read and watched the media coverage of the 22-year-old alleged
killer, I was stunned -- though not surprised -- by the fawning tone
taken by the nation's reporters.
After all, given the available information, Markoff could have been
painted as weird, anti-social, woman-hater, irresponsible, deeply in
debt, broke and in the midst of eviction from his apartment. He could
have been presented as a stone-faced, emotionless creep who scared
classmates by forcing kisses on them and had a long history of strange
behavior.
Hell, one look at the guy at a bar, and most women I know would have
shuddered and walked the other way.
But Markoff wasn't served up to the public this way by the media.
Rather, Markoff was served by the media on a silver platter, described
as a great-looking, charming, rich guy (none of which were true),
whose alleged crimes were ostensibly all the more shocking for one
simple and disturbing reason: Markoff had stepped outside of our
racist culture's perceived norm for his type.
I'll say it again, in plain language: In the mythology of white male
editors, guys like Markoff don't kill. They golf. With newspaper
editors. Most of whom look like Markoff.
The hidden code in the news coverage of Markoff, as it was for "preppy
killer" Robert Chambers and countless other white male killers, has
been clear: tall, young white guys, especially middle-class or wealthy
ones in college, just don't do stuff like this. Except that they do.
History inconveniently proves the U.S. media perception of privileged
white men as nonviolent rulers of the earth to be counter to fact.
The United States has produced more serial killers than any other
nation on earth, and 85 percent of them have been white men, according
to a study by Apsche. The average age that serial killers take their
first victim is 28; 62 percent target strangers exclusively and 71
percent operate in a specific geographic area.
From this description, it appears that Markoff, rather than being the
shocking exception to an imaginary rule where white guys are the good
guys, was pretty much the classic manifestation of the real rule of
creepy serial criminals of a certain type. Not to mention that this
nation was created through the rape, murder, robbery and enslavement
of dark-skinned people, by guys who looked like Markoff.
(It is estimated that 100 million Native Americans were slaughtered by
European "explorers," and 50 million Africans perished as the result
of the American slave trade. None of this, however, seems to have any
impact on the media's continued belief that educated white men are
nonviolent.)
So, why the disconnect from reality among the media? That's easy.
The media has long been in the business of selling perception over
truth, especially when it comes to issues of race, socioeconomic class
and sex. If you wish to know the myths and prejudices of a time, read
its newspapers. If you wish for the truths, read its poetry.
Sexism plays a part in the media coverage, too. That Markoff targeted
women selling escort services only helped the media to see him as a
good guy led astray by Jezebels.
In her book, Virgin or Vamp: How the Media Cover Sex Crimes, Columbia
University journalism Professor Helen Benedict beautifully illustrates
the distinctions placed upon victims and perpetrators of sex crimes,
depending upon the reputation, dress, race, occupation and economic
class of the female victim.
In cases such as the Markoff slaying and robberies, the underlying
message in media coverage tends to be that the women were somehow
asking for it. In presenting Markoff as "handsome," this mythology is
underscored; after all, a handsome guy doesn't need an escort service.
The women must have been asking for it.
Benedict places the blame for this sort of media coverage on the fact
that most editors, reporters and copy editors in the national media
are white men who find themselves relating, at a visceral level, to
the alleged perpetrators. Thus, the media's description of Markoff as
"normal."
Whose normal? Normal to white male editors who live in white
neighborhoods and have only white friends, one assumes.
If ever there was an argument for the need for increased diversity in
America's newsrooms, it is the recent coverage of Markoff.
Sadly, we are nowhere near such a goal. In fact, fewer minorities work
in the news media now than 10 years ago, according to a recent report
in Columbia Journalism Review.
In an increasingly nonwhite America, you do have to wonder if
blatantly biased news coverage of alleged criminals like Markoff have
anything to do with one after another newspaper filing for bankruptcy
or outright closing down.
Flossie
May 6, 2009, 2:33:38 PM5/6/09
to Serial Predators and True Crime
Sparks,
Thank you for this enlightening article. I suggest that another
reason the media tend to be biased is that white, middle to upper
class Americans have more money to buy what their newspapers
advertise, hence keeping those newspapers in business. I don't have
much time to post now, but will try and get back to this later.
Flossie
Thank you for this enlightening article. I suggest that another
reason the media tend to be biased is that white, middle to upper
class Americans have more money to buy what their newspapers
advertise, hence keeping those newspapers in business. I don't have
much time to post now, but will try and get back to this later.
Flossie
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