I was briefly tempted to make the latest Savannah Guthrie sympathy porn outbreak on NBC’s “Today” show an Ethics Quiz, but to heck with it: I have no doubts about this. “Today” show is abusing its position as a news or an entertainment show to exploit the disappearance of co-host Savannah Guthrie’s almost certainly dead mother for cheap publicity and reality show appeal. As for Guthrie, it’s simple: she is unprofessional, self-indulgent, and incompetent.
The New York Post reports from “Page Six,” which catalogues celebrity news, gossip, and other matters that waste time and thought,
“[On]“Today” show on Tuesday… Savannah Guthrie broke down in tears while discussing the ransom note her family received in February allegedly claiming her missing mom, Nancy Guthrie, had died. “A lot of people at ‘Today’ are affected by it,” says a source. “There was a sense of sadness today. Everybody just feels so bad for her. There is a lot of uncertainty.” “There is a lot of admiration and praise for her that she is still able to do her job,” says our source. “People really support her and care about her, and people are heartbroken.” During the show, Guthrie said she had “no comment” on the headlines and is “not involved in … coverage” of her mother’s abduction, but that she couldn’t “pretend” to not be present for the conversation. “I just wanted to take the opportunity to really ask people and really beg people to come forward because somebody knows something,” Guthrie continued.“This is a news story today that is on your radar, but this is the life my sister, [Annie Guthrie], lives, that I live, that my brother, [Camron Guthrie], lives, that our extended families live, that our children live every day,” she explained. “We cannot be at peace,” the journalist said. “No matter how much I try to come out here every day and smile and find that joy — and I will, I promise I will — this is a moment to say we need your help. … I’m not gonna miss that opportunity.”Guthrie ended her emotional plea with a promise: “We love our mom, and we’ll never stop looking for her. Ever.”
Ugh.
Ethics Alarms flagged the news media’s Guthrie obsession as unethical special treatment for the rich and famous in February, when the apparent kidnapping was at least new:
Ethics Alarms 
15% of those who go missing are never found?
I wonder how much of that is a function of criminal thoroughness in hiding a victim or of natural inability to find a dead person in a wilderness.
Or is 15% elevated because an uncountably large portion of the 60,000 never found, are, in fact alive somewhere and just don’t want to be “found” by the people who happen to be looking so are actively avoiding behaviors leading to being found?
I think it’s both, and I’m surprised the number isn’t higher.
Honestly though – there was a time in the late 80s early 90s when current crime mysteries was a cultural fascination and we had shows like Unsolved Mysteries and America’s Most Wanted that actively aired the stories of cases to solicit America’s help. I myself do not know what happened with that fascination. Did we just collectively burn out? Was witnessing so much of other people’s hardship just toxic to our own lives and we just gave up? Why don’t we have better websites with interactive features where we can learn about these active cases and come together when we have the mental and emotional capacity to lean into it?
Is part of the problem government transparency? I know a common refrain from the police is that they don’t want too many facts out there which only the perpetrator would know…but a database of case files and public information would be helpful to aspiring sleuths and willing witnesses. Or does the government now hate databases because it would expose some trends that it might deem problematic?
Seriously though. My family would occasionally go up to Ardmore, Oklahoma to visit my dad’s extended family. We’d stay at my Grandparent’s house in rural southern Oklahoma (where my dad grew up).
At times my parents, sister and grandparents would go visit others but I would stay at the house alone. Long about 8 or 9 pm, sun fully down, all quiet save the racket of crickets and grasshoppers in the fields, I’d throw on one of two available tv stations.
Inevitably the eerie staccato melody of unsolved mysteries echoed through the house and stabbed deeply into my psyche.
And no matter what, it was always, “tonight on Unsolved Mysteries: boy abducted from home in rural America, are extraterrestrials involved? And a Breaking report from the FBI: psychopathic serial killer escapes prison. Last seen in central southern Oklahoma. Be aware!”
Glued throughly to the screen and wondering if my parents had locked the door on the way out the crickets stopped chirping.
600,000 go missing and 90,000 are never found? Every year? That’s amazing. And average of 12,000 per state missing and 1,800 per state disappear every year? A rough averaged, but still. I’ve never had any personal knowledge of anyone going missing or never being found. Unfathomable. Maybe that’s why the story is so popular.
By the way, our piano tuner tunes the Guthrie piano. So, come to think of it, I guess this is the first gone missing story I’ve had some personal knowledge of.
I suspect that the Today show audience is getting the vicarious emotional arousal that they tune in for. The show isn’t designed for people like us.
The family has my deepest sympathies for this horrific crime. Imagine that your beloved mother has been unceremoniously dumped into a shallow grave, to be consumed by a variety of nature’s critters. It is an agonizing thought, even though it is nature’s way of recycling living beings. Still, it’s your mom and the temptations is great to sacrifice dignity and career to find answers.
Savannah should take time off until this is resolved or she can control her demeanor. This is no longer news, if it ever should have been, and she is not behaving as a professional. Her behavior is understandable but still inappropriate.