The Channon Christian-Christopher Newsom Murders

National Media Blackout?


The major news stations in the United States may be focused on Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears, but the Internet is abuzz with the news that "we, the people" want to know. What is everyone blogging about lately? I took a trip around the Internet to find out.

What I found wasn't pretty.

In January of 2007, 21 year-old Channon Christian and her boyfriend, 23 year-old Christopher Newsom, were the victims of a horrific crime in Knoxville, Tennessee. During what appears to have started as a carjacking, the criminals decided to abduct the two and set in motion a disturbing series of events.

The suspects allegedly tortured and raped the young woman for several days before killing her. The young man's life ended sooner but his treatment was no less brutal.

The amount of savagery that took place in this case is of such magnitude that bloggers and their readers are asking, "Where's the national media?" What happened to these two young people is right up there with Jeff Dahmer's deeds on the list of wicked things that people have done to each other.

So why isn't the mainstream national media talking about it?

There are different theories as to why this may be so. Some believe that the media places such little value on our intelligence that they think all of us want to know every detail of Anna Nicole's life and death or Britney's latest shenanigans. Others think that the national media outlets are ignorant themselves-- that they just don't realize how interested America is in this case.

Is race a factor?

Still others see a more sinister hand at work. The suspects who have been apprehended for the horrific crime against those two young people are black; the victims were white. Many seem to think that the race of the alleged perpetrators is the issue.

Had the perpetrators been white, and the victims black, they say, the case would be all over the television and newspapers. Many cite the much-publicized dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. as an example.

Also troubling, according to some, is the contrast between the national media coverage of the alleged Duke rape case and this one. Visitors to the blogs I viewed also cited similarities between this case and the Wichita Massacre, a black-on-white rape/torture/murder in 2000, and other little-known cases as proof of a recent history of "blacking out" certain news stories.

There is common ground.

The racial issue is by far the most discussed aspect of this case that I found. Heated exchanges between two groups, one who sees racial discrimination against whites at work and one that doesn't, fill the comments sections on blog entries on the murders.

But there is common ground for these opposing groups. Underlying the tension is a sense of mourning for the senseless loss of these two kids who were so brutally murdered. People from all different backgrounds have come together to agree on one thing: these young people didn't deserve the treatment they were dealt.

America cares about these victims.

One blogger (readthis.wordpress.com) notes that the blog entries on the Channon Christian/Christopher Newsom case has increased the blog's traffic by 400%. A Google search for the victims' names brings up some 15,500 results. Despite the national news media's silence on the case, the people are talking about it.

The bottom line is that America cares about these victims. Their deaths have touched many lives and they are not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. Whatever the reason for the national media's apparent lack of interest, Americans have found a voice with which to express their sympathies and concerns.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... ewsom.html