Greta Van Susteren Cleans Up in Aruba

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Aug 7, 9:13 PM (ET)

 

By DAVID BAUDER

 

NEW YORK (AP) - Bringing a microphone and camera crew to the gates of an Aruba landfill this past week, Greta Van Susteren returned to the island that her nightly Fox News Channel program has figuratively called home recently. Van Susteren's "On the Record" has relentlessly followed the mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama while on a graduation trip to Aruba in May.

 

Critics find it an obsession bordering on the bizarre, twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people - as long as they happen to be young, white, female and pretty.

 

But while doing this, Van Susteren has been rewarded with her biggest audiences since making the switch from CNN three years ago.

 

She averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers a night in July, up 58 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN's Aaron Brown used to put up a tough fight in the time slot; now Van Susteren routinely triples his audience. She narrowly missed 3 million on July 26, her biggest audience this year.

 

"On the Record" even topped Fox's prime-time king "The O'Reilly Factor" eight times, although Bill O'Reilly was off on four of those nights.

 

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050808/D8BRB3I00.html

"Critics find it an obsession bordering on the bizarre, twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people - as long as they happen to be young, white, female and pretty."

 

 

 

 

As the ratings show.. it's not just the media that has this obsession.

It's really a catch-22. A news story happens, the public is interested, so they cover it more, then the news goes mainstream, then they cover it more. The public likes to see young, pretty people as much as the press.

 

The fascination with Natalee Holloway is the same as the fascination with Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Scott Peterson, etc. Everything just builds upon itself and unfortunately, the media (even the 24 hour stations) can't cover EVERYTHING. It sucks, but it's the truth.

 

Plus, ratings = advertising dollars. No money, no station.

Edited August 8, 200520 yr by TheDybber

I can't stand her show.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050808/D8BRB3I00.html

 

 

Dont get me started on Natalee Holloway again.

its too bad. I really like Aaron Browns show. I hope its not in danger of being canceled now