Blogger Gets Results

A local blogger does a great thing:

Thanks largely to the efforts of a local Internet blogger, the Figueroa case is receiving plenty of national coverage, particularly from cable news.

"These missing-persons stories happen every day," said the blogger, Richard Blair, who operates a progressive political Web site at www.allspinzone.com. "But which become newsworthy? A lot of it has to do with skin color and economics, but more important, I think, is what catches somebody's eye. If you get the word out, news organizations will respond. That's what we did."

Late last week, Philadelphia police briefed reporters about the missing woman. But little coverage ensued.

So on Tuesday, Blair, thinking the case deserved more attention, dispatched a pointed e-mail to Nancy Grace, host of a nightly show on CNN Headline News. Grace's show has given constant coverage to the case of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager missing in Aruba.

The e-mail read: "Latoyia Figueroa is still missing after 8 days. And as tragic as the Natalee Holloway case might be, Natalee doesn't have a 7-year-old child wondering where she is, nor was Natalee... 5 months pregnant."

Emphasis mine. Police briefed reporters yet little coverage ensued. I didn't read anything about this in the Inquirer and I read it cover to cover (figuratively since it's not a tabloid) every day. Now that it's a media frenzy, the Inqy is all over it. This is a story that was in their backyard and they ignored until CNN, MSNBC and FOX forced them to cover it. Shameful.

This blogger has done a good thing and attained front page coverage for this story.

Another missing girl in California is pictured here.