TV One launches Find Our Missing on Wednesday night in a bid to help remedy the oversight. Hosted by “Law & Order” alum S. Epatha Merkerson, “Find Our Missing’s” first case should be familiar to Washington Post readers: It follows the February 2009 disappearance of Pamela Butler, a 47-year-old federal employee who was last seen in her Brightwood home in Northeast Washington. According to TV One (a cable network focused on programming for black adults), blacks make up nearly a third of the nation’s missing-person cases, a number demographically out of proportion. “A lot of the women he killed were minorities, and some had drug problems or other issues,’’ says Donnita Carmichael, whose mother was among the 11 women found dead in Sowell’s home. But “Find Our Missing’s” main mission isn’t media criticism or a social harangue — especially since the first two cases seen here received a considerable, if belated, amount of local coverage.
– A new show on the cable network TV One debuts tonight with the goal of correcting an oft-stated criticism of the national media: Missing people tend to get more coverage if they're white. Find Our Missing, hosted by Law & Order veteran S. Epatha Merkerson, will feature two cases per hour of minorities, writes Allison Samuels at the Daily Beast. At the Washington Post, Hank Stuever says the "handsomely produced" series isn't concerned with "media criticism" or the reasons behind the disparity in coverage. It just wants to find people, and it asks viewers to come forward with information a la America's Most Wanted. "The series keeps its outrage just out of view; its foremost concern is for the missing, as well as their friends and relatives."