Haleigh Cummings, the missing 5-Yr-Old girl from Satsuma, Florida failed to attract a following anywhere near what was achieved by Caylee and Casey Anthony. It has been only a few weeks since the girl went missing on February 10, 2009. The public’s interest in the Haleigh cold case is at an all time low. While the Anthony saga has continued to capture the interest of the public for nearly a year.
Haleigh Cummings and Caylee Anthony shared a lot in common. They both were young white attractive females. Even their names phonetically sounded similar. So, why has the interest in these two seemingly similar tragedies been so vastly different?
In television sex, drugs and family turmoil get high viewer ratings, while the public education channel continues to put people to sleep.
The Caylee Anthony tragedy started out full of family turmoil. Cindy Anthony effectively turned her own daughter in when she hysterically reported that her granddaughter had been missing for a month. And who could forget Cindy saying that the trunk of her daughter’s car smelled like a dead body had been in it?
The public immediately had a villain in Casey Anthony to dump upon, who simply never acted like a normal mother grieving from the lost of her child. Casey’s life was full of scandal, sex, boyfriends, and family drama right from day one. The public was just as much interested in how Casey could have actually fooled her parents into believing that she had an imaginary job for two years, as they were in the disappearance of Caylee. The name of Caylee’s father likewise was just as big a mystery. Results of the Orlando, Florida crime investigations were being routinely released to the public, full of drama. Furthermore, her wild lifestyle soon became well known to the public thanks to the scandalous photos of Casey partying.
The rest of Casey’s family: Cindy, George, and Lee were likewise totally dysfunctional and full of drama. They never fully cooperated with the police. Nor, did they interact well with the public. New drama was taking place on a daily basis at the Anthony compound.
Contrast that with the boring Cummings family. They were an economically poorer family who walked around in a daze all the time, as if they were half asleep. Whose idea of fun was coming home from work, getting drunk, smoking cigarettes and perhaps even pot. They even lived in a trailer park, and slept on mattresses lying on the floor.
The family of Haleigh fatally failed to immediately release a large number of family photographs and videos to the news media. Worst than that, they actually cooperated with the police. How boring? There is no drama and conflict to cover there. Despite the fact that the mother and father were divorced, the entire extended family got along remarkably well with each other, actually camping out in tents only a few apart. Amazingly, Haleigh’s natural mother Crystal Sheffield never visibly got mad at her X-husband’s live in girlfriend, Misty Croslin. Where is the family turmoil in that? A little family drama going on a daily basis would have captured the attention of the public. The public was looking for family conflict. Instead they got a bunch of zombies walking around totally devoid of personality. The only remotely interesting character in the bunch of them was the father Ronald Cummings who suffered from a rather limited vocabulary. Heck, the family never even lawyered up.
Just as inexplicably the sexual escapades of the father shacking up with an underage 17 year old teenager received little to no tabloid news coverage. Had they been doing it in another state, Nancy Grace would have been all over Ronald on that issue alone.
The real death blow to the public’s interest in the Haleigh Cummings tragedy came from the tactic of the local Satsuma police not releasing any information whatsoever to the public. Why did the Cummings family even bother to take a polygraph test, if the police had absolutely no intention of clearing them?
Let us face it, the tabloid news coverage was just plain boring. There was no family conflict and drama going for the public to tune in for on a daily basis. No new information was being released by the police. All the females, like Teresa Neves, looked bored, and were just plain boring to watch. No drama or conflict of any kind is the kiss of death in the tabloid news business.
9 comments
March 9, 2009 at 4:10 am
Lily Smarts
Your assessment of the Cummings family was right on the mark. It is a sad commentary on American life that doing the right thing gets you absolutely nowhere.
March 9, 2009 at 6:36 am
John H. Gohde
Nancy Grace has been harping for months that the family of crime victims should always take a polygraph test in order to immediately clear their names, so that the police can spend all of their efforts on the catching the real criminals. Well the Cummings family did exactly that. They fully cooperated with the police. And, it got them absolutely nowhere.
March 9, 2009 at 8:02 am
Martha
This is a sad day, when dead people take the place of live people. Nancy Grace should be helping the Cummings find the little girl. But, no she loves this mess on top of mess. I am sick of the Anthony family. I think that the whole family should be charged. Because no one in that family gives a damn about Caylee. Why is no one in the family fighting for her? Nancy, get on to something more news worthy like the Cummings girl. Give this anthony mess a break.
March 9, 2009 at 11:07 am
pak31
I am confused. Does NG think that the Cummings family is guilty? She was talking on her show the other day with Mark Klaas, she used him again as the example of how he took a polygraph right away and said that Ron did the same. She was on Ron’s side, at least that is what I got out of it. She has had the grandmother on her show, more photos, video of Haleigh and even a tour of their home to show us a clearer picture of what happened that night. Also, we are not in on the investigation. The police don’t have any solid leads from what I gather and even though the family took polygraph’s doesn’t mean they are 100% cleared. Did they release the results from the tests yet? I know that the family was saying they passed, but the police hadn’t said yet. I don’t understand how the Cummings have gotten nowhere.
To Martha, I get your point but why is it NG’s job to find this girl? She is a reporter/host of a show. Yes, she gets info out there but at least she’s putting something on t.v. That is more help than other people are doing. I am not angry at you or saying you are wrong, I just think that we all can’t dictate what a t.v show reports on. NG is not the only source for missing kids. The Anthony case isn’t (unfortunately) going to just drop off the face of the planet. Sadly, we will hear about it until it goes to trial. Just take a break from NG and you will notice life get’s a little better. Too much is too much, I watch once a week and that’s about all I can take now. LOL. I guess my point is that regardless what NG or Geraldo or whoever is repoting about, I would think that the actual search and investigation in Florida for Haleigh is still ongoing and strong. The grandma said they are still doing ground searches, etc. I just wish something would turn up quickly.
March 9, 2009 at 5:48 pm
John H. Gohde
One takes the polygraph test in order to clear your name. That simply did not happen. Thus, they got nowhere.
March 9, 2009 at 12:53 pm
azanna9
Very insightful statements from all of you! And, pak31, wonderful advise about the proper dosages of the tabloid TV coverage. But, how do you explain the coverage imbalance? I think it got the same initial coverage as the Jessica Lundford kidnapping case. They were similar in that they were just working people that lived in a mobile home park. When the press goes all crazy is when they are middle or upper class with a lot of attractive articulate people around, or famous, and lots of pictures are available.
And, what is missing in Haleigh’s case is villain(s). We can talk forever about about those labor intensive Anthony’s and how they have thrown Caylee under the bus and throw anything, anybody against the wall to see if it will stick. Since the police are very tight -lipped about any clues, they either do not have any or they think it was an inside job from within the family. Today, there is not much to say about the case, but there is plenty to talk about the Anthonys.
So, I think that imbalances will occur for both good and not so good reasons. Let’s just all learn about them so if one of our loved ones disappear, we know how to make a lot of noise and get the media attention.
March 9, 2009 at 5:57 pm
John H. Gohde
How do you explain the comment imbalance?
Check out the WordPress tag for Haleigh Cummings and the tag for Caylee Anthony. All of the posts from all of the blogs might at best get a handful of comments with a Haleigh tag, while posts on Caylee get significantly more comments. If you haven’t noticed already, I have placed both Haleigh and Caylee tags on this post. Without the Anthony tags, this post would have been totally ignored (going by total views of the post), just like my last post on viewing Haleigh’s home was.
March 10, 2009 at 10:19 am
pak31
I think in our society, people are drawn to tabloid-like stories. Kind of like John said in his statement, the juicier the story, the more publicity it gets. I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me, I too feel that in imbalance is wrong, but only to a point. Just because a case isn’t getting as much coverage as the other, doesn’t mean that these children aren’t loved and/or being looked for. But, it would be nice if there were more people like Tim Miller out there who help out in finding missing kids. The sad thing is though, usually after a child is missing a couple of days, chances of them being found and/or found alive is slim.
John, I thought all of the Cummings family took polygraphs right away. The dad wanted to clear himself I thought? I agree with you about the tags, I am pretty surprised that there aren’t more blogs or hits for Haleigh. I am just as interested in finding out more about her situation as I was about Caylee. I though, am not the type of person to fall for all the gossip and hoopla, I just want the facts.
To Azanna, I agree with you, a lot of the “media attention” in the Anthony case was brought on by the Anthonys themselves. Had they acted more reserved and calm about all of it, I doubt the story would have gotten so big. (Could be wrong though)
March 13, 2009 at 1:17 pm
alice knotts
In my opinion (and my opinions have been wrong before) but I think that
the Cummings case is getting as much attention from the media and the
public as the family is giving to their own litttle Haleigh’s disappearance.
I don’t think the Anthony case is getting too much attention.given the
horrific circumstances that led up to the murder of this beautiful little girl
from the hands of her of her devious mom. Casey needs to be reminded
and shamed and punished every day for what she did.
Although Cummings and Misty readily agreed to a polygraph;there is some
thing terribly wrong with this picture. Nobody knows anything about any
thing. On the Today show this morning,both Mr.and Mrs. Cummings sat on
the couch like bumps on a log while being interviewed barely opening their
mouth when they did have an answer to a question.
Another thing about Cummings that bothers me is that he is always so
quick to holler he was at work. ok; granted it has been established that
he was at work. I want to know what happened before he went to work.
His schedule is working the night shift which makes him due at work in the
afternoon.Something took place the morning of Haleigh disappearing in
the night. The picture is cloudy to me.