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Gabby Petito or Jane Doe — Media Only Cares for a Juicy Story
This case is only one symptom of the broader disease
There’s so much I’ve read about the Gabby Petito case that I couldn’t help but realize how naive and innocently hopeful people can be — including myself for the longest time. The initial fuss was all about a woman going missing while being on a “van life” trip across America with her boyfriend.
Where did she suddenly vanish? The internet made sure it became THE most important news item for a long time until the body was found and a crime was identified.
Now, as there’s more clarity on the actual case the narrative is about why would one missing case get so much disproportionate media attention when there are thousands of people that go missing every day.
I’ve written about enough true crime cases to know that there’s enough and more crime against people of color, women, or other specific groups of people, that this is probably a fact. One case getting such media attention is definitely grossly disproportionate.
But is this because she’s a woman? Is this because she’s white? Maybe.
However, that isn’t the core of the matter, and we’re addressing the wrong problem altogether. The problem here isn’t (just) racism, but the…
