Media Deem Reporter Far More

by John Hawkins | June 7, 2002 5:35 pm

Media Deem Reporter Far More Important Than Missionary: Newsmax[1] picked up something that I noticed too, the lack of news coverage for Martin Burnham’s death. I thought this was a pretty big story. Here we have a missionary who’s been held hostage by terrorists for over a year along with his wife. US trained soldiers in the Philippines have been tracking down these terrorists for months in an attempt to wipe them off the face of the earth and to try to free the Burnhams and the other hostages. Well they finally caught up with the Abu Sayyaf today, had a wild shootout, and freed the hostages. After a year in captivity, Martin Burnham perished in the fight. But where’s the headlines?

I caught the story on Instapundit[2] and immediately moved it to the top of our daily news stories which I normally don’t do. I thought this was too big of a story to be ignored but I was apparently wrong. The Drudge Report[3] doesn’t have a mention up about it. Fox News[4]? Not a thing. Reuters[5] has it but it looks to be their #4 story. MSNBC[6] only has a mention that Brian Williams is discussing it with no details. USA Today[7] has a story up about it but it’s not on the front page. Apparently, they think the fact that a “Kennedy cousin” was convicted of a 27 year old murder should be the story of the day.

So why isn’t Burnham’s death a headlining story just like Daniel’s Pearl’s was? Newsmax asks…

“Is the difference in coverage due to:

The media establishment’s self-obsession and self-absorption?

The media establishment’s belief that no one else is quite as wonderful and fascinating as it is?

The media establishment’s contempt for religion?”

Newsmax guessed “All of the above” and they may be right. Whatever the reason is, this story should be getting a lot more coverage…

Endnotes:
  1. Newsmax: http://newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/6/7/142510
  2. Instapundit: http://instapundit.com/
  3. Drudge Report: http://drudgereport.com/
  4. Fox News: http://foxnews.com/index.html
  5. Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/home.jhtml;jsessionid=OCWKDU0HJORMGCRBAE0CFFAKEEATGIWD?action=check&_requestid=504867
  6. MSNBC: http://msnbc.com/news/default.asp?0ct=-34o
  7. USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/media-deem-reporter-far-more/