Anthony Thomas and Kyron Horman: Two Missing Boys Demonstrate Disparity in Coverage

Anthony Thomas is considered a critically missing child from Washington, D.C. That means police think he is in severe danger. He was last seen Saturday on a D.C. street.

Kyron Horman was last seen by his stepmother at his Portland, Ore., school as he walked back to his classroom, after a science fair. He never returned home and police also have strong concerns for his safety.

Both cases are potentially heart-breaking tragedies. It is a scary and sad experience anytime a child goes missing.

Type Horman and Thomas' name in to Google, though, and the results are equally as frightening. Thomas' case was reported as a brief in the Washington Post and some local television stations. He was also featured as the weekly Black and Missing person here on Aol. Black Voices.

On the other hand, Horman's story has made it on to People's website, CBS News, and Good Morning America. In addition, a full story has appeared in statewide paper, The Oregonian, and several other websites.

Now guess which child is black.

Unfortunately, the disparity in the coverage of missing people of color still exists. Natalee Hollaway is back in the news and Horman's story is getting a lot of coverage. It's great that the media attention on Horman's case could make a difference. I hope the boy is found unharmed and returned safely to his parents.

But what about all the missing Anthony's out there?

According to the FBI, 719,558 people were listed as missing in 2009. Statistics show that 238,847 were African American, that's a little more than 33 percent of the total. African Americans only make up 12 percent of the country's population.

Minorities accounted for more than 38 percent of the total of missing people, but it could be higher because some Hispanics and Latinos are classified as white based on appearance, according to the FBI.

With numbers like that, you'd think missing minorities would get more attention in the nation's media outlets and on shows like "Nancy Grace." It's been proven time and time again, however, that missing minorities get less attention.

Sara Libby at True Slant took on People for featuring Horman while not mentioning Thomas.

She writes:

Certainly no publication has the resources or the space to cover each youngster who goes missing – but given their similar ages, the times at which they disappeared, and the relative mystery surrounding both – wouldn't it make sense for People to mention both boys? Since they didn't, it's legitimate to assume that race might have played a role in the coverage. People is notorious for covering the cases of missing white women – Natalee Holloway, Caylee Anthony, Madeleine McCann, Laci Peterson, etc. – in exhausting and excruciating detail, while women with similar stories like Mitrice Richardson get far less coverage (Richardson made a People magazine cover, but shared it with a group of other missing persons, while white women like Holloway received their own covers – sometimes more than once).

Anthony Thomas and Kyron Horman: Two Missing Boys Demonstrate Disparity in Coverage

In the case of Mitrice Richardson, a young woman who went missing after police released her from a remote police station with no car and no money, even though she had been acting strange, her father, Micheal Richardson, has been on a crusade to make sure his daughter received both the media and law enforcement attention her case deserved.

Still, as Libby points out, she shared the People cover. If there was ever a case to receive the type of overheated, non-stop media coverage that the Holloway or Jon Benet Ramsey case received, it would be Richardson. She's a beautiful young woman and her father was questioning whether the way police released her contributed to her going missing.

Black men and boys get even less attention than black women and girls. Of the 558,000 people under the age of 18 listed as missing last year, 194,000 are black, according to FBI statistics.

Sometimes there's the false assumption that black kids are runaways or just troubled. Other times, maybe the story isn't "sexy" enough.

Media attention, though, can make the difference as to whether or not a case is solved. The increased media attention can help the public be more alert to the missing person and keep police on their toes.

It is up to media outlets to not only look at what sells. There is a public service element to the media. That means the media should make an effort to be aware of and deal with these sorts of discrepancies in coverage.