Geontae Glass' Amber Alert and the Media's Lack of Attention

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During the week, I frequently visit CNN.com for news updates. This morning I saw an article titled, “Missing boy, 5, found dead” (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/05/boy.dead.ap/index.html) about the “abduction” of Geontae Glass and the Amber Alert that was issued prior to the discovery of his body. (It has since been revealed that the abduction was a hoax and Geonate’s mother and her boyfriend have been implicated.) I was shocked to realize that the Amber Alert was issued Monday morning and yet this was the first time I’d heard anything about it even though I was on CNN.com as late as 8:30pm last night and had the news on the television to about 10:00pm. Why hadn’t I heard about this earlier? Would I have heard about it sooner had it been an Amber Alert for a blond haired, blue eyed little girl instead of a little black boy? Does this situation confirm the argument that there is a huge disparity in the media's attention surrounding missing person cases for people of color vs. other missing person cases?