Laci and Natalee are household names, why not Robert, Jason and Dymashal?

[Bluebear]

Missing white women make national headlines. Minority females and men do not.

When Kelly Jolkowski's 19-year-old son Jason disappeared in 2001, she and her husband "had no idea what to do."

"We basically sat there and waited for the phone to ring" as Omaha police began to investigate, Jolkowski says. "We didn't know there were other resources out there."


Robert Anthony Spellman, missing since April 2005, received so little attention that an advocacy group put him in the press release "Missing Men Need Coverage Too."

She says at least 10 days were lost. Days they could have been distributing fliers, calling the media, holding vigils to attract TV cameras, contacting support groups, collecting information — steps that might have led them to Jason, who remains missing. At 19, he was too old for an AMBER Alert, the system first used in Dallas in 1996 and soon after across the nation to quickly publicize a child's disappearance....

That coverage, coming after national attention to the murder of Laci Peterson, the cross-country trip of "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks and the rescue of Utah schoolgirl Elizabeth Smart, has also raised questions about the media. One question is whether the national media, especially cable networks, give too much attention to stories about missing young white women as opposed to cases involving minorities and men.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-07-14-missing-persons_x.htm