My View, from Fox 13's John Wilson

My View this week, something John Couey said to another inmate when he was first arrested: That the media was blowing the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Jessica Lunsford out of proportion because, he said, it happens all the time.

Let's correct that now.  It does not happen all the time, in fact, it happened to 46 children in 1999.

The bad news is, that number has since more than doubled.  But even so, such tragic events are considered rare.

But it did lead me to the media's role.  We report a lot of stories about abused children, tortured by their own relatives or live-in boyfriends.

Doctors described John Couey as paranoid, delusional, and borderline retarded with an IQ of 78 -- which, by the way, was the same as that of the most graceful boxer who ever stepped into the ring, Muhammad Ali.

About 25 percent of the population of this country falls into that category.

When we put our kids down to sleep at night, at home we should be able to tell them they are say safe, but that's not always true.

John Couey kidnapped Jessica Lunsford right out of her room and even convinced her to go with him. She was nine; he was 46 then and looked much older.  He told her he would take her to her father.

So many news reports of child abuse and abductions, could -- if you'll stretch this a bit with me -- could have the unintended effect of causing a 78-IQ or less to get a distorted picture of how often it really does happen.  I think Couey was just trying to minimize what he had done but we never know who is watching, or what they may be inclined to do because of what we say or how we say it. 

Consider this: and it's no excuse, but John Couey kidnapped Jessica Lunsford after a lot of media coverage about the kidnapping of another little girl, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, which we saw on videotape over and over again for months on every media outlet. We cannot forget those images at the car wash parking lot.

But news coverage has also helped make our children safer.

'Megan's Law' in California tells us where predators live.  'Amber alerts' came from Texas and get the word of kidnappings out quickly.  And here in Florida, we have three laws that make it tougher on pedophiles: 'Adam's Law,' 'Carlie's Law,' and now 'Jessica's Law,' the toughest of them all.

Among other things, it requires a 25-year prison sentence for certain crimes against children.
 
These laws named for children came at a high price and we should never forget  there are more John Coueys out there.  Couey has now joined, another one -- Joe Smith -- on death row at the state prison in Starke.  He's the one who kidnapped and murdered Carlie Brucia in Sarasota, just one year before.

That's My View.