To be African-American and a member of the press is to know disparities and contradictions in coverage first-hand. A case in point is the national media attention given to the kidnapping case of Elizabeth Smart, daughter of a wealthy White family, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The media attention is warranted and this is a tragic case. But is her kidnapping any less tragic to her family than that of Alexis Patterson?

Who is Alexis Patterson, you ask? If you haven’t heard from her, I am not surprised. Alexis, who is 7, disappeared on May 3 while enroute to her inner city Milwaukee school. Until recently, her disappearance received little national attention. Her case was not aired on CNN and Fox. Photos of her did not appear in the New York Times or the Washington Post.  Earlier this month, a Nexis search of major U.S. newspapers found only 67 stories on Patterson, compared to more than 400 about Smart. The media attention on the Patterson story has increased of late, largely because the national media is embarrassed at its paucity of attention to her disappearance or the abundance of attention to the Smart case.

It appears they have no good reason for the difference. Race is certainly a large part of the disparity. However, one also has to consider that the Smart family’s media savvy is another factor. The media is notoriously lazy; it is much easier to cover a story when the family and the authorities feed you everything than it is to actually investigate a story.

But lazy or not, the Patterson disappearance is every bit as painful to her family as the Smart disappearance is to hers. And the media should not determine whose disappearance is more tragic. But in the meantime, the African-American press must remain vigilant and make sure our missing children aren’t victimized twice—by their kidnappers and second by an indifferent media.