Van Susteren on Natalee Holloway…
Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith in the National Ledger have a mini-interview with Greta Van Susteren about her Natalee Holloway shows…
Greta Van Susteren doesn’t mince words when it comes to answering complaints about sensational and provocative fare making it into the mix of news and politics on her “On the Record” show — such as a story about a judge who used a sex toy while on the bench, or the show’s ongoing attention to the story of coed Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba more than a year ago.
Um… she talks about how much BETTER she covered the story but doesn’t address why the story deserved as much coverage as it got. I mean, I’m the most knowledgeable person in the world on my life, but don’t feel like it deserves nightly coverage on a national news network. (Well, maybe a sitcom? A really BORING sitcom?)
Comment by Arthur — July 28, 2006 @ 10:17 am
Reciepe for ratings:
One slow news cycle
One affluent white female missing
A carribean island
Suspects are 3 males
Mother with outrageous accusations.
Shake it all together………
Sprinkle it with other persons of questionable character….
Serves 2 million viewers.
Comment by JustStatinMyOpinion — July 28, 2006 @ 1:16 pm
Criticism of the amount of coverage of this story is certainly valid. I hope Greta will use the opportunity given by the Mideast crisis to refocus her program and not depend so much on these kinds of stories.
But why the sarcasm toward Beth Holloway Twitty? I don’t recall any “outrageous” accusations; her daughter was on her high school senior trip, was probably murdered and the case was badly handled from the beginning by the Aruban authorities. Ms. Twitty has conducted herself quite well given the circumstances. Also, the Holloways seem pretty middle class to me not “affluent.”
Comment by Scott — July 28, 2006 @ 3:11 pm
There was a ratings story that said Greta had the most 25-54 viewers of all cable news programs last week. Not only is she covering the news from Israel in a top-notch way with lots of reports from Shepard Smith, but the younger viewers flocked to her.
Comment by Chris — July 28, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
It’s sad that it took a war like this to get Greta to stop covering missing white girls and actually start acting like a journalist rather than a tabloid queen. Oh well, I guess that still puts her ahead of Rita Cosby.
Comment by tanne — July 28, 2006 @ 7:23 pm
To Scott: The outrageous Accusations from Beth Twitty, stating on National TV for over 6 months, that the 3 boys are criminals, that drugged, kidnapped, gang-raped, and murdered her daughter, without offering up on scintilla of evidence, to prove her claims. Natalee is only listed as seeking information with the FBI. They even know there is no evidence a crime was committed against Natalee. Yet she refuses to address her own daughters risky behavior that night (drinking better part of the day, intoxicated by the time the club closed, then left WILLINGLY with 3 island boys she didn’t know, and why her best friends were not there to watch her back Or the possibility her daughter BOLTED, since she wasn’t to keen on coming home anyways.
Tanne:
I agree about Greta, however it will only be a matter of time before there is another white affluent female, that Fox news shoves down our throats..and think its a National crisis of some sort.
Comment by JustStatinMyOpinion — July 30, 2006 @ 4:14 pm
To JustStatinMyOpinion: It has been confirmed repeatedly that Joran Van Der Sloot and the 2 brothers were the last to see Natalee alive (check out FoxNews.com and CNN.com). According to the “Americas Most Wanted” episode on the case, Aruban police taped the 3 arguing among themselves about who was lying and basically turning on each other at least for a period of time. You are correct that there is no physical evidence linking the three to the crime but it certainly all looks suspicious.
As for Beth Twitty, she is naturally going to think the worst of the 3. However, I do think Greta has done a good job of balancing sympathy for the mother with serious questions about the handling of the case. I, like many viewers, feel sorry for the mother and sympathize with what she is going through. (I’m not going to respond to some of the sillier opinions you posted about whether she might have bolted or been on drugs)
IMHO, while some coverage of this case is Ok, I like Gretas program since the mideast conflict started and hope she gets back to more hard news type stories. She does them well when she takes the opportunity.
Comment by Scott — July 31, 2006 @ 1:17 am