(Since some other BNN writers have offered their opinion on Caylee Anthony and Giovanni Gonzalez I thought I would offer mine as well)
There’s been a story in the news lately, you may have hard about it. A small child is missing. The child’s parent is in jail on child endangerment charges and refuses to give police any information. There’s evidence that the child may have been severely injured or even killed.
That sounds like the case of Caylee Anthony doesn’t it? But it’s not. This story is about 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez from Massachusetts.
Giovanni’s father, Ernesto Gonzalez, had his son at his home for one of his visitations. The parents are currently involved in a custody dispute. When this past Monday came Giovanni had not been returned. Ernesto Gonzalez was arrested on child endangerment charges and is being held on $500,000 bond. He has a cut on his hand that he refuses to explain. Over this past weekend a bloody mop was found in Ernesto Gonzalez’s home in Lynn, Massachusetts. Police are in the process of conducting door to door searches and have roadblocks set up all over the area.
Outside of mine and a few other blogs you won’t hear about this story outside of the Boston area. No bounty hunters are involved and no L.A. lawyers are being retained as spokesmen. No armies of media are parked outside Gonzalez’s house. No Nancy Grace or Greta Van Sustern doing shows about Giovanni Gonzalez. No psychics volunteering their assistance.
Why do you think that is? I think you know why but not for the reasons you think. It’s because Giovanni Gonzalez and his parents are Hispanic. That’s all there is to it. However I don’t think the media outlets are racist. For the media it’s all about numbers. They’re ruled by ratings or readership. It’s a twisted game of supply and demand. It’s the American viewers and readers that are racist. They salivate over every minute detail that comes out of the Caylee Anthony story yet when a Hispanic boy befalls a similar fate no one outside of the area even bats an eyelash.
I used to think this wasn’t true but I was just kidding myself about it. Think about it, since the dawn of 24 hour news can you name a crime story that held the nation’s attention where the victim wasn’t white? I used to also think it was about social class and not color but Casey Anthony doesn’t seem to be financially successful so it isn’t that either.
The media keeps producing these circuses because we demand them. If we stop watching and reading about them maybe then more missing children can receive the media attention they deserve. In reality that’s nothing more than a pipe dream and the media will continue business as usual.
More information on the Giovanni Gonzalez story can be found here.
Thank you to all the other BNN writers who have posted about Giovanni Gonzalez.
(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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18 users commented in " Why Giovanni Gonzalez gets no press "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYou’re right … I had not heard of this case at all. A very sad statement. Thanks for writing about it.
Thank you for posting this - and for your cogent remarks. It is so sad that the fair skinned get all the melodramatic coverage of pathos and heartache and all the rest are represented in a criminal light in the media. Of course, this is hyperbole on my part, but sometimes it feels as skewed as that.
Thanks again for posting this. I wish the whole country would read it and stop to think.
Barbara, this story has been around for two weeks. Maybe you should try reading different sources, while BNN may not have quite the coverage of Fox, we do offer stories as fast as we can.
L’binques Trench is a guy that we don’t hear from often, but we always enjoy his articles. If you want some more info on this case try http://www.bloggernews.net/117440
Simon
I think that you jump to your conclusion a bit to hastily. The reason the Anthony case gets so much attention is because of the extreme circumstances surrounding the case. Her mother didn’t report the child missing for weeks, and then she claimed the child was abducted by a woman she can’t prove exists. Sadly to say, little children are killed by their parents all the time; its horrible, but it isn’t national news. Perhaps the race issue plays a small role in how the Anthony case appeals to the general public, but more importantly, the strange facts make it popular. A bloody mop would have killed the Caylee Anthony case because it would give a clear answer.
mrathel, that’s just an excuse. A bloody mop is just as much ‘evidence’ as a shovel and the smell of decomposing flesh unless you have a body.
See, that is why racisim exsists, becasue of the spin people like yourselves put on it. That is right up there with the article about capital punishment in Southern schools; where more Blacks get hit than Whites, well the ratios show that there ARE more Blacks to Whites, so naturally that statement WOULD be true; however not based on racisim. There are key pieces of information missing from your writing, like; how “loud” did the family members get-the “Other Family” got in everyone’s face, Did Gonzalez’s lawyer get a gag order placed immediately on it, are the Gonzalez’s doing the right thing by doing it this way? When we stop and think about the “other” case, is it TRULY about the missing child, or about a slew of Attention Whor-I mean mongers. The Gonzalez’s want to be like that too? Personally, I think they are showing class by doing it the way they are. They can still hold their heads high when all is said and done. The “Others” cannott. There ARE search parties and such; better ones for Giovanni, which your piece also failed to mention.
I know here in NY news about the Caylee Anthony case is nil. In order to get any information you have to do a Google search, it is not being covered by the local papers here at all.
I was at another site that asked that question and a few people said it was because of race. I though, said basically the same thing you did. It was that the media will report on the story that will bring in the most ratings aka most dollars. That’s really all it is and for some reason, white female missing attracts the attention of the public more than anything. Maybe if a news show wouldn’t devote every single show each night to the same case, there could be more coverage of other cases.
Mimi is right - there is NO coverage on Caylee Anthony here in NY. I do google searches on her to get news. I do the same for Giovanni Gonzalez. BOTH stories interest me.
Also, according to Caylee’s story, her father is Hispanic. You need to get your facts straight. Stop trying to create racism where there is none.
My son is just like Caylee - he’s Puerto Rican from his father, and Swedish and Irish from me (what I’m sure YOU would call “WHITE” - oh, the horror!), and he looks white as can be, with big blue eyes. It’s not until people hear his last name that anyone realizes that he’s “hispanic” - But, luckily, his father and I teach him to see people for WHO they are, rather than for the color of their skin.
It’s good of you to try to get the word out about Giovanni Gonzalez, but you’re going about it the wrong way.
I am European, not American. American’s are not being racist. The interest in this case is because the circumstances are so extreme. If it were a white father (I don’t know what colour he is but most hispanics are white anyway)the reaction would still be the same.
The police were immediately alerted of the situation, they found lots of blood, they will find the body soon. Children go missing all the time, including white kids you never hear of, it is only the bizarre stories that the media focus on.
If there is any divide, it is, like everywhere else, a class divide. People expect that sort of behaviour from druggies living in trailer parks or ghettos, not from ‘normal’ people living in relatively nice areas.
It is normality that people identify with. They think, that could be me or my neighbour, it brings home the horror of the situation.
When seemingly normal people find themselves in abnormal circumstances because of their own insanity, people sit up and take notice.
Trenton Duckett was not white and his case received as much coverage as Caylee Anthony’s case because of the sordid details. Like Caylee, Trenton’s mother was a person of interest and police believed she lied to them about Trenton being kidnapped and she later committed suicide. Trenton has never been found and he has been missing for two or three years. The coverage stopped after a few months.
I haven’t seen Caylee’s case on TV anywhere but on Nancy Grace. I don’t get Greta or Geraldo here. I’ve only read about it on the Internet. I think the Orlando area newspapers are probably the only ones covering it daily.
Enough with the race card.
Grow up.
The Caylee Anthony story is different as follows:
Missing longer.
More characters involved.
More lies.
Unknown father.
Shovel
Gas cans
Child who, if alive, can not adequately speak for herself.
Mother didn’t want to keep her.
Mother who stole from parents, grandparents
and friends.
Publicity-seeking family that angers the media
and the public.
Alleged sightings.
Mother who doesn’t seem to care.
Mother with a trashy mouth.
At least 2 cops who have slept with the mother.
Car that smells like death.
An abandoned car.
Computer postings by mother about death and lies.
Computer postings by grandmother about child being taken away.
Grandfather filing for divorce after the birth
of the baby.
Bloggers discussing the facts and promoting
theories.
Baby’s name seeming to be a combination of
the mom and her brother.
Jail calls revealing character of mother.
Frankly many of us are sick of ridiculous accusations about racism towards blacks or Hispanics. Instead of crying such nonsense why not put out the facts of the story itself?
I, for one, found this through googling.
What a disappointment to only encounter
belly-aching and little substance.
Let’s not forget the media circus over Elias Gonzales. Race may be part of it but there are definitely other contributing factors. Some people say good looks may be a factor in how popular a story becomes, yet Andrea Yates was no hottie. Bottom line, it’s a multitude of things and timing may be one of them.
Oreo Strawberry Shake, love your name and your post. I agree with you completely.
It doesn’t matter how much press coverage either case gets because it’s more than likely not going to bring back either child alive.
But coverage of these cases can remind us all that parents can harm their children so we shouldn’t be like the Anthony family and live in a constant state of denial that our child cannot do anything wrong. In a fit of rage or a moment of selfishness any parent can make a mistake that can cause their child to die. We need to all watch the mothers in our family to make sure they are stable and responsible mothers to protect innocent children and not live in a permanent state of denial that our families are perfect and our children would never harm their children like the Anthonys did. Any of us could end up living a tragedy like the Anthonys if we do not pay attention to our children and grandchildren and encourage them to be responsible for their behavior and admit when they have done something wrong and not cover up for them and tell more lies.
Casey Anthony learned to lie from her parents. Cindy and George have lied and lied from the beginning.
I cannot believe that you are playing the race card, how ignorant are you? Though I did not know of this case until today (Ithink it’s because the facts tell a different story)I have done several searches since to find out what I can about this case even though he is hispanic. This is because I care about the safe return of ALL children missing from there parents not just the cute white ones. You are retarded!
There are very different circumstances surrounding each case. I am thankful to you for bringing this particular case to light, but I feel that you did it for the wrong reasons. I feel for this little boys mother and pray that he is found alive and well.
I hope the next time you wish to bring media attention to a case that has in your opinion been left out, that you are doing it to bring that child home and not to sell racism.
I’ve been following this case quite a bit. I also thought the lack of press might have to do with his race. However, the more I thought about it, I think it has to do with the fact that Giovanni was likely harmed by his father, not his mother like the Caylee case, hence making the story less “newsworthy” in the eyes of the mainstream press. I was researching this very topic and found a great article on Slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2063086/
I think you’re on to something DJO.
This poor boy has been missing for months no one talks about him the way the talk or fallow the story like in the caylee anthonys case not much news on this case eather why?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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