Lagniappe: Natalee 24/7

Lately, we have had the tube on in the background, due to interest in the Natalee Holloway disappearance in Aruba. The unfolding story is of interest to us because our daughter is roughly that age, and is going to LA for an internship in the biz, living with a group of other NU students. It is of extra interest to my wife, a fiction writer, who is keen to learn about motive, evidence, and narrative as unfolding in the case.

To follow this case most closely, Fox News provides the most "coverage." I hadn't watched this news much, having heard reports of its bias. Now I am convinced that the bias toward the right exists, but more noticeable to me is the utterly unreflective commentary on Fox about just about everything: Tom Cruise's appearances, the supposed guilty parties in the Holloway case, and many other topics. Some of these commentators say things that are, at best, appropriate to desultory banter among friends over a cup of coffee, not to a national newscast. Evidence for claims is often scant, and the language used is depressingly banal...but Greta Van Susteren sure knows how to dig and get interviews.