Brandi Dunn Murder Not Big News

Some have remarked as to why the MSM, as opposed to blogs, hasn't really picked up on the murder of 22 year old Brandi Dunn. Certainly, all the ingredients for a compelling story seem to be there.

Murder, arson, multiple on line journals, and sadly, an attractive young female victim.

Dunn, 22, known to neighbors and friends as an attractive, fun-loving woman who adored her husband, was found Saturday in her parents' Grove City home after the ranch-style structure burned. Police say the fire was intentionally set and that Dunn was killed beforehand by a blow to the head.

For the record, you can follow the story through Steve Huff's blog -  and read of husband become widower Scott Dunn's criminal past here. And you'll find records of previous on line messages possibly relevant to the case at ShadoWraiths, here.

As to why some of the networks aren't making as much of this mystery as some others - a couple reasons, perhaps. MSM reporters are not idiots, well, once you get away from the political beats, anyway. They have solid instincts, and usually the best sources. On the one hand, it could be that there isn't really as much mystery to this story as they might like - with details to come out in time.

But perhaps even more importantly, Brandi Dunn seems to have been average, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. She had posts up about hosting keggers, perhaps even wanting friends to come by to help finish one off around the night of her murder. And there were also some flirty, or provocative comments mixed in. That isn't so out of the ordinary for someone living in Central or Western Pennsylvania, I have a lot of family out that way myself. Heck, it isn't unusual for the vast majority of America.

There are thousands of towns where young adults work average jobs, live average lives, perhaps sometimes party a bit, or a bit too much and live out something real, yet, something different from the ginned up reality a Fox or MSNBC like to use as their stock in trade.

If you think back on Natalee Holloway, or Laci Peterson, as well as some other notable and apparently newsworthy cases - you'll definitely see a template. The Laci's and Natalee's ET AL of the MSM crime shows aren't portrayed as average. Laci had to be the glowing portrait of young Motherhood - Natalee the bright and optimistic, promising young girl.

Sadly, the large news outlets, as much as they may try to tell you otherwise, don't tell you the average stories, the stories of you and me. And even though all the people concerned are probably more like you and me than the coverage will depict, it's what they can do with it that matters.

They're about story lines, not facts ... drama, not investigations ... and visions of perfection stolen from us, whether they ever existed, or not. They're in the business of selling the story first and telling it second. And that is just another sad fact.

I remember talking to someone from a  cable network back when they were hoping the George and Jennifer Hagel-Smith case would take off and allow them to move off of the Natalee Holloway case ... many of the reporters on it had become rather bored. The conclusion? Nope, ain't gone happen - too much drinking and carrying on.

And that's basically where the cable news outlets are today - waiting for the next fantasy-like individual to come along and end up murdered, so they can spoon feed you the real life drama behind it night after night. If they hadn't caught the Harvey family murderers so quickly, you'd likely still be watching that. But don't forget that Dandridge and Gray killed another family, Percyell and Mary Tucker - and may have other victims, too ... even if they never did quite make it into the cable outlet's story lines.

They were simply too average, too much like you and me.

Comments

[stella cotton]

Looks like national news is finally jumping in on this case. Fox News "The Line Up" is airing the case now and referring to all the cyber clues.Better late than never!

[Phoenix]

Nice job, Dan.

[Steve Huff]

Stella, thanks for that note -- I made producers at Fox, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and ABC aware of this case last week and wondered what the response would be. The longer it takes, as Dan noted elsewhere, the more other outlets will take notice.