Paul Reynolds; Cross Fire, Aruba Style

After spending a majority of the time on the American media outlets and 24-7 news outlets like Fox, MSNBC and CNN Paul Reynolds addresses the Aruban public. I have spent much of the past couple of days getting to know Paul Reynolds and discussing what are the best methods to getting out the word to not only the American viewers but also the Aruban people. As I have discussed previously to Paul and Natalee’s Aunt Linda Allison, that I have never seen one family ever so control a news cycle with a story and along with it the media. Literally guilting the media in to continual coverage of the story as the American public demands it. If the MSM ever discontinued coverage the wrath of the American public would be swift. That being said, there still is another media side that has not been used and that is that of the local radio of Aruba.

Pictured above, Paul Reynolds begins his efforts into appealing to the Aruban people by having a radio interview the other day with the host of Magic 96.5 FM.

Yesterday it was a radio interview with Elvis Weert of Top 95. I actually did not realize at the time that I was to take part in the interview as well. My role has always just been to analyze what I have seen and heard from the many Aruban people I have met during my stay and what I have always seen in the past and to come up with any way possible to help cross the divide between the Aruban and American opinions on this case. Being a part of the interview was a nice surprise.

Thus began the radio interview with Paul Reynolds and Elvis as Paul took many calls from Aruban people that were tough but fair. Paul Reynolds stressed once again that the Holloway & Twitty have no problem with the Aruban people and that in fact they thank them for all that they have done. However, they do have a problem with three people in particular, Joran and the Kalpoe brothers. Paul stated that in one way or another one or all three know what happened to Natalee. Paul subjected himself to calls and questions from Arubans and should be commended for that. I truly hope that he and the family continue to do this in reaching out to Arubans so that they understand what is going on and that they remain informed with fact not rumor.

An interesting situation happened during the questioning that I had previously mentioned to Paul as for the reason to do local radio. Much of what Arubans get for TV news if CNN and that means Nancy Grace. How many times I have been told down here that this woman is terrible and that all she does is trash Aruba. Needless to say, Nancy need not attempt to get any time-sharing in Aruba anytime soon. That being said most Arubans never see Fox, MSNBC, Court TV, etc. Could one only imagine having all your news on this story coming from Nancy Grace and Larry King? Other than the internet to see on-line news, Arubans without it are limited in their scope. Thus the importance of local radio that gets to Aruba as well as the surrounding islands. During the Elvis self proclaimed “i don’t mean this to be a a cross-fire interview”, one of the questions was, “has the family done anything to stop that hateful things said by Nancy Grace?” One can begin to see how the “CNN” mantra has become part of the Aruban vocabulary and thus the influence that this one network has on the dissemination of information on the island. As I have said to many Arubans when they have complained of Nancy Grace to me since I have been here, “that’s OK we don’t like her much in the states either”.

No matter what the case, the Holloway and Twitty’s must continue to cross the divide of international vs. local media so that all sides are working toward a common goal. The international media is important to keep the story going in America; however, the local media is needed to possibly inform Arubans to come forward with leads to possibly solve this mystery. They are both resources that need to be used to help find Natalee.