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How news stories like JonBenet are made will be featured segment in the first of a series of six half hour specials on the Independent Film Channel tonight.

By Ted Cox Daily Herald Columnist
Published: 11/18/2008

IFC's 'Media Project' is '60 Minutes' for the Obama era

"The Independent Film Channel finds itself in the right place at the right time with the debut of "The IFC Media Project" at 7 p.m. today.

Just as the election of Barack Obama seems to confirm a swing to the left, in the media and the culture at large, IFC emerges with a hip, progressive, youth-oriented "60 Minutes" dedicated to making itself "a user's guide to how the news gets made."

That will make a viewer go, "Hmmm," but another segment on Larry Garrison is apt to make a viewer actually go Elvis on the tube. Garrison's entire life's work is serving as a media consultant drawing attention to kidnapped and missing girls - inevitably white - because they're so good for the Nielsen ratings on cable news channels (at least when a political campaign isn't actively raging). Garrison talks quite openly and cynically about looking for tales that pack "the oh-my-God factor." And think about it: A missing or murdered black kid has to be the nephew of Jennifer Hudson to get the same sort of media attention, and even that doesn't compare with a blockbuster story like that of JonBenet Ramsey.

More reviews of the show tonight --

New York Times--The first segment profiles Larry Garrison, a consultant who helps families of missing children deal with the news media.

LA Times-- Eyebrows will raise occasionally, as in a segment on a man who promotes "missing white girl" stories to cable news.

Sepinwall on TV--The missing white girl feature, for instance, is less interested in examining why these stories are so popular than in why certain white girls get picked -- which, in turn, transforms it into a profile of media consultant Larry Garrison, who has built a cottage industry out of placing himself between news organizations and the victims' families, and of encouraging the news to do more stories on these specific victims."