The Missing Kids Obsession

Meyer: There Are Fewer Of Them, But More Media Coverage

(CBS) 
So why all the bad news?

A true but very incomplete and somewhat superficial answer is that outfits like CBSNews.com cover these stories and feature them prominently. And we do. But since technology allows us to know with great precision what gets read on the Web, I can also report that these stories collect a tremendous number of eyeballs no matter how we play them. We do not manufacture the interest. I trust cable networks and newspapers have the same findings. Some believe that all the attention to the issue has led to the decrease in its incidence, but there's no hard evidence of that.

The number of crimes, as we've seen, has gone down. Coverage, at least lately, has gone up. Interest in them has gone up. I think there is more at work than just a growing tabloid ethos in the news business, although I willingly concede that's part of it. If viewers were not deeply and repetitively drawn to stories of child crime, we wouldn't pay so much attention - trust me. We don't like to do these stories, we try to put them in perspective, and we deserve a fair share of blame.

Still, we're back to the deeper why: why are we - the media, the people - so hooked on these scary stories? And why right now, specifically? I'll offer three theories.

Writer Gregg Easterbrook has devoted an entire book, "The Progress Paradox," to trying to figure out why today's Americans are so unhappy when objective circumstances have never been better. He has a notion he calls "headline-amplified anxiety." Once upon a time, people feared only what they encountered firsthand: tornadoes, infections or lions. Now we fear what we see pictures of in our living rooms: SARS in China, anthrax, terrorism, bird flu, Ebola virus, serial killers and kidnappers.

The fact that the real threats have lessened gives the mind spare time for imagining more obscure threats. He cites a fascinating study that shows the more a person watches television, the more that person is likely to overestimate how much crime there is or believe that crime is increasing when in fact it is decreasing.

But why is this happening now more than, say, ten years ago? (And I believe it is; others may disagree.) The obvious answer is 9/11. Between Laci Petersen, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Smart, Carlie Brucia, Danielle Van Dam and the ever fascinating JonBenet Ramsey saga, there has been almost no time since 9/11 when a story about a missing, murdered or abused child wasn't in headlines, on the Web sites and filling air time.

Many polls have shown increased general fear and anxiety since 9/11. Terrorism is an amorphous and anonymous thing. The most popular televsion shows now are the "C.S.I." shows that get into incredible gory detail about the minutia of crimes scenes and autopsies. That's entertainment?

It's understandable that people attach vague, visceral anxiety to something specific - their child, grandchild, niece, nephew or neighbor.

A doctor who treats patients in Washington - a place where fear of terrorism is high - offered another layer of possible explanation. He believes many parents (and grandparents) feel anxiety about "outsourcing" so much parenting.

As Americans work harder, more families have two earners. That means kids are shunted off to organized activities, sports, day care and that neighborhoods aren't watched over by at-home parents. Super-moms and uber-dads work all week and slavishly get kids to their weekend activities. But parents, this doctor has found, feel less in control of their children and more guilty. This makes the morbid fascination with real life versions of their own nightmares more understandable.

Whatever the cause, politicians, the news media, marketers and Hollywood can prey on these fears and exploit them. And that is something that can be fixed.

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Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington.

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