Joy Reid calls out 'Missing White Woman Syndrome' amid Gabby Petito case
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Biba Adams September 21, 2021, 10:57 AM·3 min read In this article:
- Joy ReidAmerican journalist
"The Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice," Reid acknowledged while decrying the inconsistent media coverage.
On Monday's airing of The ReidOut, host Joy Reid addressed the massive media coverage surrounding Gabrielle "Gabby" Petito, the young New York woman found dead in Wyoming after going missing earlier this month while on a road trip from Florida with her fiance.
Remains found in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park were confirmed as Petito on Tuesday. Her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie — who has been named as a person of interest in her disappearance and apparent death — went missing after refusing to speak with investigators.
"The way this story captivated the nation," Reid told her viewers, "has many wondering why not the same media attention when people of color go missing? Well, the answer actually has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome, the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing white women like Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway while ignoring cases involving of people of color."
While noting the inconsistencies in the media's coverage of Americans gone missing, Reid acknowledged the sadness of the Petito case. "It goes without saying that no family should ever endure that type of pain," she said, "and the Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice."
"No one is looking for us." With all the coverage on the Gabby Petito case, Joy Reid calls out the media's obsession with missing white women, and calls it "missing white woman syndrome". pic.twitter.com/FPbA3bHjNq — Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 21, 2021
Joy Reid discussed the lack of coverage of missing Black & Native American women on her show tonight. We have to do better as a society. We can't let the powerful at the top, mostly white males, tell us what's important. We have to steer our own agenda. Started in 2020 cont in 22 — Dana MS, CCC/SLP (Retired) (@Dana44045978) September 21, 2021
On Reid's weekday show Monday, panelists included Derrica Wilson of the Black and Missing Foundation and Lynette Grey Bull of Not Our Native Daughters Foundation. They pointed out a case of a missing 24-year-old young Black man who disappeared after a car crash in Arizona in June. His case is only now starting to get national media attention.
As previously reported, Daniel Robinson was last seen driving away from his job site in the Buckeye, Arizona desert on June 23. His father, David Robinson, has been organizing search parties, launched a website, and he even hired a private investigator after he felt law enforcement authorities weren't providing much help. Their family has set up a GoFundMe to continue their search for Daniel.
Reid noted that she had not heard of Daniel Robinson's case until a friend shared the information with her.
"It is definitely the issue," said Wilson. "And we have been sounding the alarm for nearly 14 years because of this. When it comes to missing persons of color, men, women and children, our cases are not taken seriously, and no one is looking for us if we were to go missing."
Reid asked guest Grey Bull why she feels missing indigenous women don't get media coverage, and she replied, "One of the main factors and one of the key factors that a lot of people don't want to talk about is that it's racism. It's systemic racism. We're still fighting oppression in our tribal communities. We are still facing inequality across the board, whether it comes to our community, housing, jobs."
"I mean, you can pick any topic in any country and have an issue there," said Grey Bull. "So, it's no different when it comes to missing, murdered indigenous women and girls."
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This is a touchy subject. There are arguments on both sides of this issue. One could argue that Petito's disappearance was made a big deal because she was an internet "celebrity" whatever that is, and one could also argue that the important thing is a missing person, not their "fame". (There are hundreds if not thousands of internet "celebrities" so I think that is a watered down category).
There is a history in this country of missing black women not getting the attention in the media that missing young white women get. Is that the case here? Not easy to say.
Gonna havta blame the lefty liberal media for its lack of coverage
If the media covered the hundreds of people on a daily basis, would it make a difference in society? Or would missing people be accepted as an outlier of US society?
Local Wal-Marts used to have a notice board with fliers of missing persons. I don't know if they still do because I no longer dawdle while shopping. I have a list and shop and quickly and efficiently as possible.
Kidnappings & Missing Persons — FBI
How many missing black women get covered by Breitbart or World Nut Daily?
There is no both sides to this.
The couple had a following on the internet. Her going missing went viral. The national media picked up on it because they are sharks that never miss a sensational story; especially one that already has a following on the internet. Media are keeping the story alive because it still has a following. Once the following dies down so will their coverage.
How many white women go missing and the media never utters a peep?
This is about being famous. Not even that famous; as I am sure the vast majority had never heard of her before the national media picked it up. If it had been a black couple with the exact same circumstances the media coverage would be exactly the same.
Emotionally driven inconsistencies usually are.
Meh.
There is a history in this country of white people's feelings being much much much more important than black people's lives, and it's certainly easy to spot that here.
"...missing black women not getting the attention in the media that missing young white women get."
Where BLM is concerned, any other LM is hijacking a unique cause. Today, it's Petito's day in the sun, not the start of another 'me too'.
Joy Reid is a flaming racist.
No other way to put it.
what did she say that you think is racist?
I didn't say what she said here was racist. I said she is a racist.
She totally ignores incidents against whites unless she can use them to achieve some kind of traction for her African American narratives.
She totally ignores a much more prevalent black on black violence problem and points out that a white girl gets some attention.
I'm not saying what she is saying in this article is wrong John, i'm saying it's sad that she focuses on it for the wrong reasons.
Because she is racist.
Joy suffers from "Angry Black woman syndrome". Must be tough only getting 1.5 million a year to spout crap on TV.
You know, i don't doubt that some component of her on air personality is an act but i also don't doubt that she has ABWS.
Bigly
White woman TV crap spouters make twice that much.
Please point to someone that has the same qualifications and brings in the same number of viewers and generates the same amount of advertising dollars that get paid twice as much.
That doesn't mean she's wrong.
This is about fame, not the color of the victim.
True, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
There has been a curiously huge amount of coverage on this case. It dominates my news feeds all day long in multiple places. Makes me feel sorry for the thousands of missing persons of all kinds that don’t receive this kind of attention.
The weirdest part for me is that I recently went on vacation with my kids and grandkids, and my daughter invited a young woman she had mentored when she was younger. She is the spitting image of her, sounds like her, is two years younger than her, and her name is Gabby. Freaked me out when I first saw the story.
The fact is these days news coverage is much more democratic than it used to be. Popularity is measured in clicks, more clicks equals more coverage. News Agencies have always chased the ratings but now with internet coverage they can measure ratings in real time, every view is a vote and if it gets enough votes there will another article on the subject.
And the coverage for Native American women/children is where????
If you read the seeded article you will see that subject was part of Joy Reid's coverage.
Joy Reid is the media, is she racist? Is her network racist? Liberals control the media are they racist?
How is it that 'liberals' control the media??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I won't hold my breath, waiting for your answer.
Oh....I don't know.......CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Instagram to name a few. Oh wait, they don't control Fox news.
Faux news is just that. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube aren't news sources and all the other sources you named aren't 'controlled by liberals'
Remember reality has a liberal bias
.
I wonder who the "genius" who thought THAT up was.
For that matter, I wonder why folks still are falling for that false claim!
Right.....should have been Marxist.
So, Joy Reid, MSNBC, and a largely liberal (allegedly non-racist) media are racistly not covering missing person-of-color stories? Is that her argument? Do these journalists ever think to look in the mirror when they criticize journalism?
Maybe if “journalists” like Reid didn’t spend a solid hour each day beating some political dead horse, they could cover a greater variety of news stories.
All of that aside, her argument is not really supported by data - at least none that she presents. It’s easy to look at an individual case here or there, but it doesn’t really tell us anything about trends, policies, or motivations in news coverage.
But assuming there are more stories about missing white people than any other group, why else (besides racism) might that be? One essential fact that is forgotten in grievance stories like this (e.g. why didn’t more black people win an Emmy award?) is that the country is still mostly white. Therefore most missing persons are going to be white. Therefore most missing person stories are about white people. Black people are like 13% of the population. Native Americans are less than 2%. Even if the missing cases were even on a percentage basis, and they were all covered, you’d still see way more stories in the news of missing white people. That’s not racism. That’s just demographics.
What FBI data I could find does indicate that the race of most missing persons is white or unknown.
And why the focus on only black and native Americans? Latinos don’t go missing? Asians don’t go missing?
Also, not every instance of a missing white girl becomes a national media obsession. A lot of times, I think these things get the coverage (TV news being a visual medium) because the victim is pretty and lots of pictures exist. So if you’re looking for privilege, it might be pretty privilege , more than white privilege.
At least on the local news, it appears to me that missing person stories are reported quite regularly without regard for the color of the victim - but then they move on to other stories. CNN figured out years ago that they could flog one story all day long to prevent people from changing the channel.
According to the 2020 census the white alone population is 57.8%, the lowest percentage ever.
2020 U.S. Population More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Than Measured in 2010 (census.gov)
So if you want to play that game then 42% of missing person stories should be about people of color.
Of course among younger populations where the number of missing persons is likely higher the people of color percentage is even more.
I dont think Joy Reid is wrong, but I do agree she is got a hard sell to make on this topic.
Maybe they are. Joy didn’t present any evidence one way or the other. She was focused on African and Native American, which together comprise 15% of the population. And it’s not my “game.” The game is Joy’s and it’s stupid. There is no conspiracy or systemically racial injustice behind the news coverage of this story.
She also does not get to say shit about the coverage when she isn’t doing anything to change things. If she wants to cover missing black people, she can do it. No one is stopping her. But she doesn’t. She’s a hypocrite.
It has been interesting watching all the eruption of white grievance on this seed.
And what white grievance would that be John?
Well, for one, calling Joy Reid a racist because she brought up the way white girls are covered as missing persons as compared to how people of color who are missing are covered.
I admit it is an uncomfortable subject but she is not wrong.
She didnt whine because the girl is white. She pointed out that black women who go missing dont end up on national tv very much.
I think she's probably right.
Ms. Reid is not the one doing the whining here
First off, I never used the word racist, and Reid was in fact wrong in her approach to make a comment like that. What if you were the parents of that young lady? You would probably feel different.
To be fair, most white women who go missing don't end up on national tv, either. For people to care about it, you need to be young and pretty.
You left out somewhat famous already.
Wow, that’s some twisty perspective right there. The seed is literally about Joy Reid’s grievance, not anyone else’s. Everyone else is focused on a young woman who appears to have been murdered, but all Joy Reid can focus on is “blah blah blah what about us black people.”
She found a way to take someone else’s tragedy and make it all about her political agenda. She should be ashamed of herself.
I dont agree. Although it is a sensitive subject, she has a valid point to make.
If she genuinely cares about missing people of color, all she has to do is cover the stories. Instead she wants to go after white people, white media, or whatever white boogieman she thinks is to blame for her grievance.
She's more interested in shaming the boogieman than she is covering the actual stories. She could be part of the solution, but she gets more self esteem by complaining.
She's not wrong, though.
Anyone know how much time on her show Joy has devoted to missing persons of color?
The answer is probably zip. That is unless Reid thinks she can capitalize and score points from it.