Blog Attack

I must confess to be a Philly Magazine reader, despite the fact that the most recent iteration of the magazine is geared to appeal to a younger audience (younger than me, anyway). More bothersome is the fact that it is a tad "Philly-light" and often much too pretentious for my blood. I can generally flip through that stuff, for the interesting articles and the various "Best Of's." Overall, still worth it for me as a casual, gossipy magazine dealing with the area.

I was disappointed to read this "Contrarian" piece Attack of the Blogs by Noel Weyrich in the October issue of Philadelphia Magazine. Admittedly, I often find Weyrich to be a Neanderthal. His extreme bourgeois view is a little surprising, since the region (even the suburbs) is generally moderate, both politically and socially.

The subject of his mudsling was the blog campaign to raise awareness of the Latoyia Figueroa case, the missing, pregnant woman from the Philadelphia area, later found to be murdered by the father of her unborn child. A local blogger from the All Spin Zone managed to bring her case to the attention of local and national media, which no doubt contributed to the solving of her case. At the time, I followed the postings of the blogger, and was impressed with his efforts to focus attention on a non-blond, non-white missing woman.

I've read Weyrich's rant a few times and I'm still not quite sure whether he objects more to bloggers or missing non-blonds getting too much attention. Either way, a few of his observations are beyond the pale, such as his opinion that race has nothing to do with missing girl/women media coverage. Rather, it's the sweet and innocent (read that: pretty, blond, blue-eyed) who get attention, not the bad girls (read that: poor, black). Unfortunate as it may be, concludes Weyrich, it's mostly white, middle class and up women who fit in the former category, so they get the media's (and the public's) attention. One shouldn't read too much else into it, by carrying that racism stuff too far. Of course, based upon the views expressed by Weyrich, you don't need to go too far to find it.

The blogger in question responds, in No Good Deed Shall Go Unpunished. Other bloggers also weigh in: Attytood and Sisyphus Shrugged, giving Weyrich the "thumbs down."