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Latoyia Figueroa: The Search, and the Questions, Continue

Posted By Matt On 29th July 2005 @ 16:38 In Politics, Media Criticism, Blogs, Internet, Technology, Latoyia Figueroa, Missing Persons, Race | 5 Comments

Finding Latoyia: Your Actions Can Make a Difference

The blogswarm is having a noticeable effect: Latoyia’s picture was all over the place today. Please help us keep up the pressure.

The reward fund for Latoyia continues to grow, but it remains far short of the goal. If you’ve thought about giving, but haven’t done so yet, please consider doing so. Every contribution, no matter how small, will help.

If you’re a blogger, please consider putting one of the following ads on your site, and linking it to this ASZ post. (ad 1 | ad 2). Remember: our best chance for finding this young woman is to bring her image before as many eyes as possible. Please do your part.

A detail I’ve just read about, and that could be a good identifier, is that she has the word “Angel” tattooed on her wrist.

SpinDentist Drills Tucker Carlson

Even as he has received accolades for his role in pushing the MSM to cover Latoyia’s disappearance, Richard Cranium has received accusations of political bias. He deals with them effectively in this post:

. . . on an issue like Latoyia Figueroa’s disappearance, the lines of politics disappear completely. Latoyia could be any one of us, our children, or other family members. So, keep this in mind as you peruse articles on ASZ other than those relating to Latoyia.

Some people, unfortunately, refuse to hear that message. During an interview last night on MSNBC with All-Spin Zone’s own SpinDentist, Tucker Carlson had this to say:

But here‘s my—here‘s my question. Why is this a political issue? You get the sense reading these overheated blogs, almost all of them, for some reason, left-wing blogs—why do you get the sense that they‘re angry at the press about this and that it‘s a political issue? I don‘t see the political connection at all.

I highly recommend reading the entire transcript: Steve did a fantastic job of knocking Carlson off of his talking points.

Steve wrote an extraordinary post on his experience on the show, which includes the important reminder that right now, our focus should not be on criticizing the police, critiquing the politics of media coverage, or politicizing the tragedy, but rather on FINDING LATOYIA, plain and simple.

To me it is clear what Tucker Carlson wants to do, to make the point that “overheated” “left-wing blogs” are too quick to attach racism as a reason for any situation gone wrong. Nevermind the right-wing blogs that have picked up this story. Nevermind that Tucker Carlson himself highlighted the topic of trace and class the night before. Carlson’s agenda was clear to me. He was trying to get me to criticize corporate-run media as racist, therefore enabling him to then make the sweeping judgement that left-wing blogs are somehow anti-capitalist. I hope I acquitted myself well in blunting his agenda, because that agenda is the worst impulse that emerges from Talking Head shows such as The Situation with Tucker Carlson.

Let me expand just a moment. Latoyia Figueroa is a young pregnant woman missing. We need to focus on that, because the mainstream media missed the boat in focusing on it for ten days. To focus instead on racism and supposed “overheated” “left-wing blogs,” Tucker Carlson does more than merely deflecting attention from Latoyia, he attempts to reduce the issue to the lowest common denominator, to one of left vs. right. I’ve stated many times here on ASZ that the conservative penchant for demonizing the terms “liberal” and “left” is surely the most divisive and destructive strategy in American politics today. To take a tragedy and try to thrust that spin on it is bad form, and bad form that further divides and damages our body politic. Those of us in the progressive side of the blogzome know that the founders of this country based it on liberal philosophies from Rousseau, Locke, Paine, etc. Folks like Tucker Carlson, who likely is well-versed in history, conveniently forget that in order to extend an attack on the “left” even in the context of a missing pregnant woman.

As Sukabi points out in the comments of Steve’s post, this is what Tucker Carlson came back with after the commercial break:

CARLSON: Welcome back to THE SITUATION. Sitting in for Jackson Pollack, I‘m Tucker Carlson. Time to welcome back G. Gordon Liddy and Rachel Maddow.

Gordon, you heard the contempt dripping from the lips of the blogger guy we just interviewed, mad at the press because he thinks there‘s disproportionate coverage of Natalee Holloway. Sort of hard to argue with that.

Sigh. Tucker, did Jon Stewart teach you nothing?

Stay on Target

In the comments to two posts on Philly Future (Latoyia Figueroa: Get Involved, Ol Cranky and Attytood on Carlson), I’ve been drawn into side discussions about the relation of the case to race, politics, television ratings, and police procedure. I’m trying to take ASZ’s sage advice, and to table such discussions until the search is over. But it’s hard to do so when one sees crap like this (via Disenchanted Forest):

Hoping to shore up their case against media coverage of the Natalee Holloway case, political bloggers have rallied ’round a missing persons case from Philadelphia.

Interesting to note that some bloggers have zeroed in on a “black” image of the missing woman (brown border) , while the media is using a “white” image (blue border).

[snip]

UPDATE 2:50PM : Thanks to an anonymous Commenter, we have a THIRD photo of Latoyia… the three of her could be the next Destiny’s Child! Amazing how one person can look like three different people!

I would respond that it’s amazing how one person can be such an racist ignoramus, but I’m trying to stay on target.

update: be sure to check out upyernoz’ analysis of SpinDentist’s “bare-knuckle, no-holds-barred, steel-cage brawl.”

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5 Comments To "Latoyia Figueroa: The Search, and the Questions, Continue"

#1 Comment By SpinDentist On 29th July 2005 @ 16:50

Oh, great post, Matt! I was going to include Jon Stewart but was too lazy to look it up.

#2 Comment By ol cranky On 29th July 2005 @ 20:08

I hate to say it, but some of the comments have gotten worse. I guess some people are, unfortunately, devoid of humanity.

It’s a shame Carlson felt the need to change the spin and be a small man with SD last night. He did make some cogent points and admitted the problems in media coverage and he could have continued with a good discussion of what is done and what could be done, instead it seems he felt a need to stoop to playing the poor man’s anne coulter and appealing to the lowest common denominator to make the conservatives like him.

He seems to be getting his comeuppance though. He was tossed from CNN right after making a fool out of himself with Jon Stewart (coincidence? maybe) and now, after a month on the air, MSNBC suddenly announced he’s being bumped to 11 PM ET to make way for Rita Cosby’s new show.

#3 Trackback By The Republic of T. On 30th July 2005 @ 14:25

Looking for Latoyia

I was over at Tattered Coat, when I noticed Matt had a blogad up for the Latoyia Figueroa Reward Fund. After I smacked myself in the head for not thinking of it myself, I created a free ad and posted it in a few minutes.
Anyone who’s read the …

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#5 Comment By la bona On 1st August 2005 @ 14:56

In the name of justice, I am obliged to help to disseminate story of a religious persecution … My apologies for irrelevance.

Breaking News!
Barbaric persecution of an apostate …

The Malaysian authorities are persecuting an ex-Muslim fondly known as Ayah Pin and flattened his religious commune dubbed as Sky Kingdom, which is a quasi-religious commune located in north east Malaysian.

Once Muslim, Forever Slave!
Ayah Pin has publicly renounced his Islamic faith in 1998 but was REJECTED by the state (NB: Apostasy is a capital crime is Malaysia punishable by DEATH!)

The Persecution
In 2001, the Malaysian authorities jailed Ayah Pin for 11 months for attempting to renounce Islam. He is viewed as a security threat and they continue to harass him with all sorts of uncivilized threats befitting the low-life including smashing up the lovely giant teapot and flattening the commune, which they just did yesterday!

Prior to the destruction yesterday, the authorities raided the commune in July, 2005 and detained 45 faithful including a Kiwi, senior citizens and among others, 3 children of Ayah Pin and his 3 wives. I read somewhere; there are kids left behind unattended in commune and while some faithful have to pawn all they have to bail themselves out, the rest are still in custody.

Their crime: Being unIslamic!

As if the arrest was not good enough, mobs made up of some 35 unidentified assailants armed with Molotov cocktails attacked the commune and set the place ablaze …. Assailants attack Ayah Pin’s commune with Molotov cocktails! … I supposed mobs and Molotov cocktails are Islamic.

If you have a comment, please do not hesitate to email me at divinetalk@gamil.com. Alternately, you are welcome to do so at the forum (http://divinetalk.blogspot.com/2005/07/islam-persecution-i.html)

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