A body was found in the Mississippi River yesterday and identified as that of Jared P. Dion, a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student who had been missing for five days.
It’s a tragic death, of course. But a few questions about it- before now, had you been aware that he was missing? Were there constant updates on all three national news channels about his status, like there were a few weeks ago for another missing student in the UW system, Audrey Seiler? Even now that his body has been found, is it even a national news story?
The answer to all those questions is “hell no”: as far as I know Dion’s case has not been mentioned on any news network, and a search on GoogleNews for his name returns no results for any non-Minnesota/Wisconsin media outlets. Why’s this? Because the media has one standard for the disapearances/deaths of attractive white women, and quite another for the rest of the population. Is there any other reason why Audrey Seiler’s fake disappearance got about 50 times the media coverage than Jared Dion’s real one?
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 16, 2004 04:27 PMOn a related note, they found Dru Sjodin outside of Crookston today. This is the hometown of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr, who is held in her kidnapping.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/4727870.html
for those who don't subscribe to strib:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-missing-student-timeline,0,66016.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
Even in Minnesota, I didn't know that person was missing, but then I get all my news from the "truth squad" on fox news!
BTW, I HATE the startrib online subscription (even if it is free), what can they gain by this? That's why I get all my news now from the pioneer press.
Posted by: Jeff at April 18, 2004 12:57 AMDue to Audrey Seiler’s fake disappearance; Jared's family decided to keep it quiet in fear that the two cases would be linked and people would assume he was just faking it as well.
Posted by: UW-L Student at April 19, 2004 05:50 PMAs stated above, It was a family decision to not go national with the story. They did not want the public to just assume it was the same situation and not take it seriously.
Posted by: uw-lacrosse student at April 20, 2004 12:25 AM