Fear, Classifieds and the “Craigslist Killer”

The Daily Mole’s Steve Perry makes a good point about media memes, pointing out that newsrooms have hyped the Craigslist connection in the recent murder of 24-year-old Savage resident Katherine Olson, who was killed when responding to an ad for a nannying job.

“Craigslist killer” has been worked into many headlines, says Perry, including at least three in Pioneer Press stories. But the coverage tends to “ignore both victim and perpetrator in favor of dark musings about scary Internet monsters that place the popular free-classifieds site — which, perhaps not incidentally, has also been a leading agent in decimating daily newspaper revenues — front and center.”

His fake ad suggests a way the paper could leverage this fact.