another intellectual and moral fraud on the air

Via Attytood, Tucker Carlson on MSNBC (Maddow is from Air America):

If you live in Philadelphia, and you're the kind of person who knows about blogs, you also probably know by now all about the search for 24-year-old LaToyia Figueroa of West Philadelphia, who went missing 10 days ago and was ignored for 9 of those days by the same national media that's obsessed with missing white women, preferably blonde.

Yesterday, largely because of a campaign led by Philly blogger "Richard Cranium" of the popular website allspinzone.com, that started to change. The story got picked up by the big 3 cable news networks, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, it is the lead story on local news radio and upfront in the papers, and a reward fund for LaToyia's whereabouts is growing rapidly....

MSNBC's bow-tied, right wing pundit, Tucker Carlson of the widely unwatched "The Situation," and local boy turned stock tipster Jim Cramer, managed to "cover" the plight of the missing woman in the most disgusting manner possible -- and without even lowering themselves to mentioning after a fleeting mention of the name of the non-white woman....

CARLSON: People who don’t—people who don’t work in the press who look at this and immediately draw the conclusion that people who work in the press are racist ought to know there’s another dynamic involved here. And it is this. Things that are unusual or perceived to be unusual are the ones that are considered news.

It’s like planes that land safely aren’t news. When someone, not just a black person or a Hispanic person, but someone who lives in a tough neighborhood, is injured in a crime, the feeling, right or not—or wrong—and it’s probably wrong—is, this is a more common occurrence than if it were to happen in a suburban area.

MADDOW: But it’s the per—again, it’s the perception. We’ve got a woman who has been missing for nine days. She’s pregnant. She’s a young mother. It has all the components of the other stories that get covered. But because of the race, because she’s from West Philly, it’s not getting covered.

CARLSON: But...

MADDOW: So, people are trying to drive...

CARLSON: But...

MADDOW: ... the media...

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: But the truth is, we are covering it. It was on our air today. And it’s on our air...

MADDOW: Because of an enterprising blogger.

CARLSON: It’s...

CRAWFORD: Where would you rather vacation, Aruba or West Philly?

MADDOW: West Philly has...

(CROSSTALK)

CRAMER: Forty-second and Baltimore is nothing like Aruba.

(LAUGHTER)