Not White, Not Rich, Not Covered*
The woman in the picture on the left is Latoyia Figueroa. She's from West Philadelphia, and is the mother of a seven-year-old child. She is also five months pregnant. She's been missing for nine days now. Probably this is the first you've heard of her.Her case is being publicized by Philadelphia blogger Richard Cranium at his All Spin Zone, and other bloggers have started to pick up the story. This has apparently embarrassed Fox News, CNN and MSNBC to the point that they have each given the story a little bit of attention. Of course, the coverage they have tossed off after over a week still does not hold the slimmest of candles to the round-the-clock saturation coverage being received by the disappearance of a certain pretty Caucasian girl from a wealthy red state suburb.
People close to Latoyia have asked that her disappearance not be made into a political issue, and I will try to respect that wish. But I feel that it is worth pointing out that nine days after having gone missing, Natalee Holloway had already had her image plastered all over the airwaves for days. Two months later we still see her picture everywhere we turn, and 24-hour cable news channels are still devoting the lion's share of hour-long programs to the story. Pretty soon Nancy Grace and Greta Van Susteren are going to be reduced to meeting behind the cafeteria after last period to settle with their fists exactly which of them is going to get the next exclusive interview with Natalee's stepfather "Jug" Twitty.
Look, Natalee Holloway's disappearance is terrible and tragic, but for God's sake, nothing about that story justifies one one-hundredth of the coverage it has received from the national news media. The same details of the Holloway case are picked over night after night after night by the Sean Hannitys of the world only because the victim in that case is blond, affluent, pretty, and she is lucky enough to have parents who seem to instinctively understand media manipulation. But it isn't the not-so-subtle race and class bias on such vibrant display in the coverage of the Holloway case that so chaps my hide; it's the fact that (sorry if this offends anyone) THIS ISN'T NATIONAL NEWS!!! Sad as this story is, it doesn't affect anyone outside of Natalee's immediate family and those close to them. Honestly, this story is so irrelevant to 99.999% of all Americans that it actually makes me think back fondly on the days of bogus, fear-mongering stories of a shark attack epidemic that never actually happened.
As for Latoyia, if anyone has any information about her whereabouts, please call the Philadelphia Southwest Detective Division at 215-686-3183.
*Until bloggers sufficiently embarrass the Mainstream Media into saying just enough to cover their butts.
posted by Yukon Sully | 10:31 PM
6 Comments:
Today at 1 pm CNN did a story on this missing woman.
Yeah, as I mentioned, the attention from bloggers has exposed the 24-hour network's hypocracy on these stories, so they're probably now all going to mention it once or twice. There will not, however, be the saturation coverage that is Natalee-palooza. Part of me hates to point out this criticism, since it certainly isn't Natalee's fault that she was abducted and most likely killed. But the media is just making me sick to death on this subject.
FYI: Holloway's mom is an elementary/middle school teacher in Jefferson County, AL (not exactly a "rich" job). Her stepfather sells/buys scrap metal (recycling). The real story behind the story is the amazing amount of local/regional support; kids selling lemonade, braclets, ham sandwiches, etc.; old ladies making quilts, etc.; to raise money to support the extended stay of her family and the hugh $$ rewards offered.
I'm not knocking anyone who cares about someone who has met with unfortunate circumstances--if the kids want to raise money for a reward, good for them. But don't pretend this family was born in a log cabin (or West Philly, for that matter); I don't know many people who could afford to live in Mountain Brook, or afford to send their kids to Aruba as a graduation present.
The Arubian graduation package tour was $1150 per person. It was paid for out of her $8,000 college money, which presumably she was not going to need as much of since she had just received a full scholarship 4-yr to U of A. The kid also had $250 in cash, no credit card, and a prepaid cell phone that would only call Alabama, unfortunately. Not many people in AL have figured out international calling. Her real dad had also sent her $80 from Mississippi. There were two phone calls received in Alabama from that cell phone number in the wee hours of the morning in question. Both were less than a minute, about 10 minutes apart, and both consisted of garbled crying. -- While they do live in the Mountain Brook School District, it is not exactly the part of Mountain Brook that has the $400,000 houses, and there are 2 other teenagers in the residential family besides the missing girl. Rich is a relative term. Some of her classmates could indeed be considered "rich" by Alabama standards, and about 20% of Mountain Brook would be "rich" by most people's standards, but the folks in question are probably better termed "middle class". -- Sorry the facts don't fit the ideological metaphore; sometimes real life is harder to prepackage. -- There are three reasons this case is probably getting so much media attention as compared to others: 1) When they found out the kid was AWOL at 11 am the next morning, her stepfather called the local FOX station news anchor who attends his church to find out how one goes about getting a plane to Aruba (these are not travelling folks). 2) The mom DOES have a degree in speech and PR. She probably never thought she would be using it under these circumstances, but she HAS managed to use the media to her advantage fairly well. 3) It's classic redneck theatre, and the media loves it: think of the old hillbilly ballads or the Greek myths; family gone awry, children bear the punishment; the family clan and extended septs rally around in troubles and close ranks better than a musk-ox circle; girl is captured by bandits never to be seen again; etc.; plus a murder mystery thrown in for good measure. It's classic, it's southern, it's a morality play, and it's good theatre. -- You really don't think that "The News" is about NEWS, do you? It's big business just like anything else. If it sells, it plays. And that's nothing new. Think about the 18th century crime broadsheets being hawked and sold in the streets of London. This story would have been hot press back then as well.
Sorry, it's been a while since I looked back at these comments.
I think you get my point, anonymous, but you're very offended by my use of the term "rich", for some strange reason. Would it make you feel better if I said "comfortable" or "upper-middle class?" My point would still be the same. Sure, news isn't really about news, but it SHOULD be, and maybe if we point it out often enought we can change that.
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