The New York Times has published a story on the Latoyia Figueroa case, and the role of the Philly blogosphere in promoting it:

After weeks of frustrating obscurity, the case of Mr. Figueroa’s daughter, Latoyia Figueroa, 25, has finally captured the national news media’s attention, spurred by the persistent nudging of Philadelphia-based Web logs and a city councilman distantly related to the Figueroas.

In the process, the case has become a flashpoint for the growing unease in minority communities across the country about the way they believe many national news outlets focus relentlessly on missing white women, while giving little attention to equally compelling stories involving poorer minority women.

“Certainly, everybody hopes that they find out what happened to Natalee Holloway in Aruba and to all the other missing young women,” said Juan F. Ramos, the city councilman, as he handed out leaflets on the teeming corner of 52nd and Market Streets. “But for a while there, you had to wonder: why not Latoyia?”

[snip]

You just had to listen to the simple facts of the story to realize that there was something seriously wrong here,” said Richard Blair, who runs a Philadelphia-based political blog, allspinzone.com, writing under the name Richard Cranium.

“The fact is, this issue of news organizations’ obsessive coverage of missing white women has been simmering in the blogosphere for a while now,” Mr. Blair said.

What the Figueroa case has done, he said, is give people something on which to focus their attention.

“When black women disappear, the media silence can be deafening,” began an article in the June issue of Essence magazine, which chronicled cases of eight missing black women.

While we continue to hope and wait for Latoyia’s safe return, we can take some measure of solace in the national attention that her case has received — thanks, in large part, to the efforts of Philadelphia bloggers.

This story highlights the fact that all of us — from the smallest bloggers to the largest — can have a real effect on the world we spend so much time documenting. Freed from the demands of commercial pressures, freed from the false imperative of objectivity, we can help point to the stories that matter, the stories that need to be told.

As Sam Cooke wrote:

It’s been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will

And if it doesn’t come soon enough, you can bet that they’ll be hearing from us.

(cross-posted on Philly Future)

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