In The News

Turd War
The local free weekly and the daily newspapers are going at it over... a turd. More accurately, the lack of turds. Turd Blossoms, really. The Statesman normally carries the comic Doonesbury, but the last two comics released by Doonesbury contained Karl Rove's nickname "Turd Blossom". The Statesman seemed to think that was offensive, profane language that was not suitable for it's readers of today (emphasis due to the fact that the word, among other doody nicknames, has appeared in The Statesman in the past).

Lifejackets Needed
The Statesman reports that more people than usual are getting maimed and killed on Lake Travis this year. There have been 37 boating accidents already. Most recently Heather Strother, a 24 year old model, was killed in a collision on the lake. Be careful out there, folks!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Kristina B in News on August 9, 2005 4:12 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

search engine

i come from best search engine http://www.google.com

Heather's Stepfather

Edward and all.

It only took four clicks to get to this location on the net. You should remember that you are in public when you shoot your mouth off. If your intension is to be helpful then please base you opinions on facts. We let the newspaper interview us and approved the picture they ran on the outside chance that Heather may have survived this accident and someone could give us information.

The family wishes to thank all the friends and people we never met for all your love and help over the last week and a half.

edward

Mark, while I am discouraged that I didn't make the list of all the guys you consider hot somehow I will try to carry on. Which men get to nail the "The Hammer" is your own business, but I have no doubt you are quite a tool.

Alex, I'm sure the thought pattern likeness royalties that Mike Judge has to pay to you and Mark every time an episode of Beavis and Butthead airs must garner you great respect among your peers.

Kristina, good point, the Statesman article places emphasis on the increase in boating accidents, 37 already this year compared to 25 in all of last year, and not drownings. Also, to be clear, there is no question that the situation with Heather Strother is truly tragic and I am not implying that the Austinist or anyone else feels otherwise. The crux of the issue is what makes accident number 37 newsworthy versus say number 36? I didn't know it before I posted my original comment (which was aimed more at the Statesman than the Austinist), but recently the media has been turning an eye on itself regarding this phenomenon and there's even a Wikipedia entry. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post sums it up pretty well:

"Every few weeks, this stressed-out nation with more problems to worry about than hours in the day finds time to become obsessed with the saga -- it's always a 'saga', never just a story -- of a damsel in distress."...

"The specifics of the story line vary from damsel to damsel. In some cases, the saga begins with the discovery of a corpse. In other cases, the damsel simply vanishes into thin air."...

"A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as 'petite', and it also helps if she's the kind of woman who wouldn't really mind being called 'petite', a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive -- also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: Jessica Lynch)."...

When interviewed later and asked why this is Robinson replied:

"There's no easy answer, because I think the fact that the victims in these celebrated cases all fit a certain profile -- young, white, female, attractive, middle-class -- is the result of both conscious and unconscious decisions. Media professionals make those decisions but so do the viewers and readers."

Very true. Hard to just blame big media since they only shovel out what the masses want to consume.

To be fair,as Michelle Malkin points out:

"I'm not sure, though, how much race is a factor relative to others. Would an overweight, unattractive white girl who went missing get preference over a Tyra Banks-look-a-like?"

In this case, awareness was raised that everyone should be careful on Lake Travis. This is doubtless a good thing, but if any one of the accidents before this one had received this much attention maybe number 37 could have been avoided.

MISSING PRETTY GIRL SYNDROME Michelle Malkin

(White) Women We Love Eugene Robinson (Washington Post)

Missing White Women and the Media (Washington Post)

Not All Missing Persons Are Equal (CBS News)

Damsels in distress. If you’re missing, it helps to be young, white and female (MSNBC)

Missing white woman syndrome (Wikipedia)

concerned

The fact that a picture of here was in the paper is because she is still missing. The posts say that she died. While common sense and history shows that someone missing this long probably didn't survive, it has not been confirmed yet. A picture was posted so that if anyone has seen her, or if anyone picked her up in that boat as reported by witnesses... What each of you is forgetting is that a young girl is probably dead, and the driver of the boat is still in the hospital with life threatening injuries. Maybe each of you could stop thinking about yourselves for just one minute and say a prayer for Heather and the driver.

mark hammer

your knees would tremble at the site of The Hammer.

Alex

Well said, mark hammer. You must be quite a looker.

mark hammer

how could anyone be so ignorant as to assume that a post would ignore someone because they are not hot. this is not gawker or some celeb site, guy. with that said, maybe if you were hotter we would take your comments more seriously.

kristina B

It was not unnoticed. It was not included because the Statesman article and this blog entry were about the _increase_ in boating incidents this year. Drowning deaths, while always tragic, are not on the rise this year according to the article.

Edward

Did anyone even notice that according to the almost footnote at the end of the Statesman article "The latest drowning happened over the weekend, when officials found Jamie Lee Davis, 36, at Devil's Hollow on Sunday." The Austinist didn't. I guess she wasn't photogenic enough for anyone to care. I can't help but think that articles like this imply: "It's truly a tragedy that we've lost this hot young model...God, why couldn't it have been ugly fat chick instead?!".