Bad news is apparently bigger news if the victim is white

An un-named militant group has kidnapped the 3-year-old daughter of a Brit expat working in the oil-rich Niger delta region of Nigeria. Apparently, they have offered to swap her for her dad, local bar owner Mike Hill

So, the first question which comes to mind is, "Who on Earth kidnaps a 3-year-old?" The answer to that one is: Lots of folks in Africa, South America, and other parts of the world. The thing is, they usually kidnap locals, not Westerners. You never hear about it, because, well, it's just a bunch of wogs kidnapping each other, isn't it?

This one gets ink because its a Brit. But it's not getting a ton of coverage in the US, because the kids is only half white. Mom is a Nigerian, so it's only half as newsworthy as it might be otherwise.

Is this too cynical? Too insensitive? Are you offended by "wog" and "half white"?

Maybe so, but I submit that it's true.

Black women disappear in the US, sometimes pregnant, and it's page 17C, maybe. Pretty, white Jesse Davis goes missing and it's everywhere. We find it's her black boyfriend who snuffed her, and he had help from a black woman, and now it's Katie-bar-the-door.

Lil Kim shows up to awards shows drunk, stoned, and mostly undressed, and it's a 3/4 inch blurb in People magazine. Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or any of the other "Young Hollywood" types do the same thing, it's joke #2 in Letterman's monologue, on Entertainment pages in every paper, and mentioned on every Morning Zoo radio show in every market in America.

A Mexican woman and her two kids are killed on I-30 and it's buried in Metro Briefs. A white woman and her two kids die on the Tollway and it's front-page, lead story on News 8 HD, and there's probably a special investigation called.

Now, I will concede that not all these cases are the same, that we're not talking apples to apples in every situation. Fine.

It's still true.

I think it's stating the obvious: In Western society today, a white person is more worthy of media coverage than a person of color.

I'm not saying its good. Its deplorable. But it is what it is.