Natalee Holloway: Telling "The Big Story's" Little Stories

New content from Sunday evening below this post.

Having some modest experience on both sides of journalism over the years - including being interviewed, as well as doing interviews on multiple occasions - I've never come away from being interviewed with 100% satisfaction that what I thought or meant to say going in was always clearly, if even truthfully conveyed.

A recent personal experience was disappointing as it became clear I was there to simply add flavor to a pre-written story line, as opposed to tell any part of the story I actually knew and was prepared to tell going in. But that's an insignificant piece of the Natalee Holloway story.

Unfortunately, what is significant is that now, from talking to a fair number of individuals from Alabama to Aruba with genuine knowledge of this story, it is doubtful if the real and true background story of what happened in and around the disappearance of Natalee Holloway can accurately be told for a long time to come, if ever.

Most everyone I have been talking to who might answer questions as regards certain facts - from a skirmish outside of a bar, to "what Joran was really like," have pulled back inside a shell as defense against a more quick, ever more intrusive and sensationalist-minded media.

My frustration as a media subject started some twenty years ago when I was at the center of a controversy involving a publication I then edited, a story which larger media outlets picked up on and subsequently reported. Today my frustration as a would-be journalist mounts each day from people who say this or that on my site is inaccurate, while informing me that individuals with the "real" story will not come forward because of a previous experience with this or that television outlet, or print or radio report for which they co-operated.

It's a fact that we are living in a time when technology and comunications are advancing rapidly, thereby establishing the means and ways for more and more truths to be told to a public that obviously wants and seeks them, and ever more quickly, at that.

However, it's also becoming increasingly clear that the very vehicle for much of our contemporaneous public truth-seeking, today's so-called "journalism," is perhaps more than any other single factor ultimately responsible for less truth and clarity being brought out.

Maybe this is why as a reader I've always had a fondness for history - though without becoming overly political, even that seems to suffer more and more from a particular bent of revisionism, the application of a template of some pre-formed, non-objective truth in its telling.

Thank God there is always fishing and comic books - neither has ever let me down when I've sought to either contemplate, or simply forget about what might actually be true.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Comments

[ElissafanBelgium]

here's another mysterious vanishing from a cruise ship: the Annette Mizener case. Very strange and all looks like the same fate has become her like Amy Bradley. I hope this woman can get the coverage also she deserves because I haven't found that much info on her on the net.
Here's the link:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-17292

[Darcy]

The runaway theory is ridiculous. Try explaining it. How did she get off the island. Why did she pack all her things before she went out that night? So she was ready for the trip home the next day, I do it that way myself when traveling, then can relax on the last night of a trip and enjoy. What did she use for money? Where did she go? How did she arrange it? Get real. And she is running away but decides to party with one or all three of these boys right before running away???? Ludicrous. And an 18-year-old does not have to run away, if she wants to leave, her parents cannot stop her she is of legal age so why go about it like this and on a class trip, etc., etc., etc. Hogwash. I suppose she stowed away with no money, no clothes, etc. right? Ha, ha, ha. Too bad it couldn't be the case though, at least she would then be alive, the best possible outcome but it just makes no sense at all.

[gemebwai]

She (NH) did not pack her case! Her roomies did! (according to MSM interviews with the other kids)

[MJM]

Maybe the investigation should relocate to MB?

think about it: you murder her and the next day your back home. And Aruban PD isn't going to knock on your door any time soon, now will they?

[marty]

I was looking at pictures of the prayer wall for Natallee and noticed that a girlfriend referred to her by the nickname "Hoots". Does anyone know how she got that name??

[Darcy]

Gemebwai, I have been off of this for a few days, did not know her roomies packed her case. Interesting. Why was this, can you tell me?

I still think running away just is not plausible. There is a large reward, this has made news all over the world and someone would have to see her, she cannot survive on her own with nothing. No passport, no money, no clothes. I mean in this day and age, someone just for the media attention or the reward would report that she is living here, or we saw her here, etc., etc. I mean as much as the white slavery/sex thing seems a far reach, that I could see easier because she would have no way of contacting anyone and the people who have her are making their money on her or doing their corrupt things, they are not going to come forward but if she ran away, some goodhearted person or someone in need of the reward money would say, we saw her somewhere.

[Darcy]

MJM, I have seen you say this a few times and I always stop and think about it. It certainly isn't impossible but I always come back to how everything would have to be so coincidental and work just right for this to happen. If it was one of the other kids on the trip, first of all, everyone, the suspects and the kids from here say Natalee went with these three boys, even these three boys admit that. Second of all, the person from here would have to follow them more than likely for this to occur. Third, if this person did follow them or do this to Natalee, out of all those kids and roommates, someone would have to have noticed him missing. And what did he/she do, grab a taxi and follow them? Just doesn't make sense to me. If as seems to be the case now there is any truth in that she was dropped with Joran by beach at Marriott, this is not the hotel the other kids were in so just how do you see this happening? She did not wander back to her hotel, no one in hotel ever saw her, security cameras never show her, etc. And it just seems if say Joran and the Kalpoes simply dropped her somewhere and never did anything to her, then why was that not their story from the start w/no changes. The story only changed from the Holiday Inn when they realized the cameras show they never returned her to her hotel as they stated at the outset. I also think that although our FBI is kept out of things in Aruba, they certainly had authority and certainly did question the American kids here as to their whereabouts, any possible suspects in the class, was anyone else missing or w/Natalee, etc. Just because we do not hear that as they have probably been told to keep mum and probably told that by the FBI and others, we know darned well the FBI investigated this part of this. I'd like to hear your theory though on just how you think that could have happened. I can't see how it could have worked.

[will]

My big question here is this. Where were Natalies real good friends and how did they not say anything to her about no dont leave with those guys and make her come back with them. I see lots of women doing these things to protect their friends. Just a thought her real good friends have to know more. And Joran by the way , I can tell is a scumbag. so to all of the women out there that are into the "bad boys" watch out they are all like that

[Hunter]

There is a high chance that Joran van der Sloot drugged, raped, and killed Natalee Holloway. The incompetent local Aruban officials failed to initially and properly investigate or collect evidence from the three punks and their families houses/cars. The three little thug punks were trained on what to say/not say by the van der Sloot judge and possibly others in this cover-up. The Aruban and Dutch governments have since manipulated the 'investigation' to produce the best outcome for themselves while killing the truth and any chance to find Holloway.

It is interseting to note that Joran van der Sloot, possible rapist and murderer, is, or was, planning to go to college in Florida of the U.S.A. He may want to reconsider his options once the 'investigation' is over and the Aruban 'authorities' let him walk free. There are presently very many angry Americans who want answers and justice for Natalee and the Holloway family. It will be much easier and quicker to extract the truth from the punk Joran van der Sloot once he is in America - if he has the arrogant foolishness to show his face in the U.S.A.

The bigger picture is the Dutch government refusing to include help from other sources & it is an insult to the Holloway family and America as a whole. For anyone who supports the van der Sloots, the Kalpoes, Aruba, or Holland, you support drug traffic, crime of many varieties, and possibly anti-American sentiment and or terrorism. The Aruban island cares only for the money U.S. citizens spend there and they do not care about you or your family. The supporters of Aruba are arrogant, indifferent, self-important trash much like the van der Sloot cowards. Perhaps your son or daughter will vanish via foul play by corrupt thugs with help from corrupt officials from a 'country with no crime' - you will dance like a puppet on strings to a different tune then.

I trust the U.S. government will expose Aruba & the Caribbean for the corrupt, drug infested crime haven that it is and will call for an American travel ban to Aruba at a minimum.

Waiting for Joran in Florida