Still Missing

Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig are still missing after more than a week since their kidnapping at gunpoint in Gaza by unknown terrorists. our prayers are with them and their families.

Michelle Malkin is more than a little perturbed over the lack of coverage the abduction of Centanni and Wiig has received in the media. I am sympathetic to her outrage, and her notation of comments such as that by TV critic Bob Laurence, who seems to have exemplified why the public-at-large geneally hates journalists except for Fox News, but I wonder if an alternative explanation might be in order.

Fox News, as Malkin notes, has been intentionally low key on the kidnappings. No screaming banner graphics aor the like. Fox News tends to be a bit more savvy than they are given credit for by their far-more-arrogant competitors. They can see the big picture.

Typically, when a kidnapping such as this is committed, the kidnapping is publicized and hyped until the terrorists come out with a list of demands, which often includes video of the kidnapped hostage. The hype tends to amplify the effect of the terrortists' demands. The kidnapping is for publicity purposes.

Now, with the kidnapping of Centanni and Wiig, there is no hype. Fox News is giving it almost no coverage. Their competitors are giving it no coverage out of spite for Fox. So there is no coverage.

If there is no coverage, the effect of whatever demands the terrorists make is minimized.

I suspect this is the intended effect on the part of Fox News. The terrorists want publicity fromt heir kidnapping. Fox won't give it to them. The other news outlets are too stupid to understand this dynamic.

This has the possible effect of rendering the holding of Centanni and Wiig valueless for the terrorists. It puts Centanni's and Wiig's lives in danger -- if they have no value, why hold them or keep them alive? -- but it also minimizes the risk of future kidnappings of Fox journalists. If kidnapping htme has no value, why risk it?

To emphasize, though, this is just speculation on my part.