We sure love obsessing over white women in distress

Does anyone remember "Lovely" from Abuzz?

'Runaway bride' inks deal with firm pitching movie
Officials who searched for her aren't amused
Thursday, June 16, 2005 Posted: 7:27 AM EDT (1127 GMT)

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- "Runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks made a deal with a company that is pitching a movie about her life to networks -- annoying officials who spent thousands of dollars searching for her.

ReganMedia, a New York multimedia company, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a story in Thursday's papers it has acquired all media rights to the "life stories" of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason.

The company did not say whether any money had changed hands.

"I am looking forward to developing the scripted project with Wilbanks and Mason," company president Judith Regan said in a statement. "Theirs is an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two."

The 32-year-old bride-to-be disappeared from her home in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth on April 26, four days before her wedding in a ceremony with 600 guests and 28 attendants.

She took a bus to Las Vegas and then Albuquerque, New Mexico, and claimed she was abducted and sexually assaulted. She later recanted, saying she fled because of unspecified personal issues.

Wilbanks pleaded no contest earlier this month to making a false statement and was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service. She also was ordered to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550. (Full story)

Duluth spent nearly $43,000 to search for her. Wilbanks has repaid $13,249.

"It's disturbing to me on a personal basis that she's willing to profit from this, but there's nothing I can do about it legally," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who pursued charges against Wilbanks.

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

There is quite a difference between asserting that the extensive and sensational coverage these stories tend to attract is of questionable value to the viewing public and contending that the victims are not worthy of media attention.

The disappearance of an American woman in a foreign land (particularly a place touted as an island paradise for tourists) is newsworthy. The speculation that the story would never have received similar attention if it involved a black woman or a man is just that, but even if that were to be the case, it doesn't make a story of a white woman and foul pay unnewsworthy.

...

I will agree that the nature of the news coverage is disagreeable and sometimes even offensive, but to somehow lay that at the doorstep of the victims being covered is misplacing the blame.

Newsworthy to who? If every disappearance is newsworthy because every victim is newsworthy, why don't we have six hours of daily coverage on them every day. This most recent case is newsworthy ... in Aruba and the woman's home town. Does it merit a mention on a half hour national news program? My take is no. As to blame, we are to blame for all of this. If it didn't sell, it wouldn't be on TV.