From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

Brooke Gladstone is on vacation.

I'm Mike Peska.

The kidnapping of a child is the prototypical parental nightmare, and thus riveting story material.

Yet, though there are between 200 and 300 such cases each year

in the United States, few attract the media's undivided attention, such as occurred this week

in the Utah abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Here is MSNBC's Ashley Banfield on location

in the search team's map room.

Mapping is a crucial part of this.

Every single area that they decide upon will be searched,

and at times, will be searched twice as well.

From the moment Elizabeth was reported kidnapped,

the media, especially cable news, masked in Salt Lake City. And that suits

Ben Irmini, director of Missing Children for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

He joins us. Ben, welcome to on the media. Thank you for having me.

What is it about Elizabeth Smart's apparent abduction that has captured the attention of the media?

Well, I think probably the circumstances surrounding the child's abduction.

The child was abducted from her bedroom by an abductor who came into the house and

abducted her at gunpoint and the fact that there was another child's sister in the room along

with them. And probably because of the fact that there was another child's sister in the room along with them.

And probably because of the fact that the child was abducted from an affluent neighborhood,

...