Diary of a Mad County

FRIDAY, July 19 Lake Elsinore resident Alejandro Avila is arrested in connection with the chilling kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton. No one is more chilled than OC Weeklings. Our cover story on the kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old girl in 1951 (Nathan Callahan's "Live Noir," July 12) hit the streets just three days before Samantha was abducted. The 1951 case—with its round-the-clock coverage—has been pegged as the originator of reality television. The 2002 case—which tops the news on all the Los Angeles TV stations, gets picked up by the 24-hour cable news channels and is splattered across front pages throughout the country—shows not much has changed since 1951.