Have You Seen This Woman?
Of course you haven't,...
From a personal standpoint, let's look at why she's still missing:
- She's not white
- She's not blue-eyed and blond
- She's not exactly telegenic
- She is Afro-Hispanic
- She's pregnant (out of wedlock)
- She has another child
- She's a single mom
Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2005
WHAT HAPPENED TO LATOYIA?
And why did it take so long for her disappearance to become national news?
By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
simone@phillynews.com
WHAT HAPPENED TO LATOYIA?
And why did it take so long for her disappearance to become national news?
By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
simone@phillynews.com
UNTIL yesterday Latoyia Figueroa was just another missing woman.
But only a handful of people knew the 24-year-old pregnant mother was gone.
That was until her cousin, City Councilman Juan Ramos, gathered fellow politicos for an afternoon press conference imploring the public to help find her.
(snip)
It is rare that a minority missing-person case has attracted so much attention, cops said. According to the FBI, as of July 1, there were about 48,000 missing adults, 7,000 of whom are black women. The disappearance of none of those black women has netted major national news.
Until now.
Jeremy Gaines, spokesman for MSNBC, wrote in an e-mail response to the Daily News, "there's No simple formula."
Wow,..I hope Mr. Gaines didn't get hurt side-stepping that question! I think that's an MSM catchphrase for "she's not a white girl," but read on,...
(snip)
A quick Google search of recent news items featuring Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who vanished two months ago while on vacation in Aruba, turned up 509 articles.
As of 9:30 last night, Figueroa's name appeared in 12 Google news hits.
(snip)
There is a "human hierarchy which puts white women victims at the upper end," said Keith Woods, dean of the faculty at the Poynter Institute for journalists.
"Racism is somewhere in the mix but it isn't the whole thing," he said.
(snip)
There, the Citizens Crime Commission announced a $10,000 reward for any tips leading to Figueroa's discovery and several city leaders asked the public to help police find her.
Meanwhile, blogger Richard Blair, aka Richard Cranium, of The All Spin Zone thought Figueroa's picture should be all over the cable-news networks and morning talk shows.
Blair spent the weekend posting his views up on his blog, criticizing CNN for not picking up on the story.
Other bloggers followed suit, and now Figueroa is more than just a Philadelphia story.
TrekMedic's Musing's:
I'm posting this story not so much because Miss Figueroa is missing (many others, as noted, have taken up her cause), but to point out a glaring oops in the MSM spin machine: Isn't it funny that such paragons of MSM liberalism such as MSNBC and CNN practice the very racism they continually denounce? Kinda like the ACLU's two-faced value system, huh?
(Hat Tip to ALa for a related story)
posted by TheBitterAmerican @ 7:53 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I hope they find her.
do me a favor. update the link you have to me. We are now at http://www.stoptheaclu.com
thanks, Jay
Just catching up on your latest, TrekMed.
And ya know, on this one, I beg to differ. I see nothing racial in the coverage, or lack of coverage on LaToyia's missing status.
Wait... I take that back. Any cries of her plight being deliberately "ignored" by the MSM because of racial prejudice is about the only "racial" aspect to this case I see.
Truthfully, LaToyia's absence from the media spotlight(up until now) was no different than that of the other 47,998 cases of missing adults, as cited by your article. Who are they? Surely many of them are blue-eyed blondes as well, don't you think? Afterall, peroxide is an OTC remedy.
In the case of Holloway, what brought this originally to light was
1: it was a group of high school graduates in a foreign country - meaning that the search and prosecution was out of US hands and left the parents feeling helpless, and
2: the Holloways themselves led the charge and, to this day, still keep the story alive in the media. They are wisely using it as a tool to help find what happened to their daughter. And more power to them.
Note that as soon as LaToyia's relatives started making noises, they too got publicity.
Again I ask... what about the other 48,998 missing adults? What makes either of these two missing persons so favored over the rest? We don't even know their stories. There could be many others like Natalee or LaToyia.
God help us if all parents of missing teens or young adults start using the media as tools such as the Holloways. We will never get another scrap of news from the regular talk shows, and would need to devote a channel strictly to missing persons. Now there's an idea...
Other than that, I have to agree with Mike here, TrekMed. It's about ratings. And LaToyia's missing status has not captured the attentions of the public. So many young girls, pregnant, may run away, or meet with untimely ends. But this was not the case of Holloway, clearly a "victim" - and in a foreign country to boot.
Even at that sad fact, I do get oh so bored with the MSM and their inability to multi-task. Like Mike, I do wish for the safe return of all the missing adults -assuming that is their desire. But I do not need 24/7 coverage of any single missing person. We live in a world with larger issues that affect the masses, and not just one family. And those issues need our focus and action even more than Holloway or LaToyia.
I do hope they find her too. But unless she's white and comes from money....She won't be on every news program, etc. This is a sad but true fact in the USA. Thanks for pointing this out to all of us. Peace out. Inky
Natalee's story does not rate national news. Aruban news, maybe. Backwoods Alabama news. But it's not national news.
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