PressEthic

The way missing persons stories work is intuitive. Get as much media on the story as possible, so the news can spread as far as. . . the UK?

Type “Valery Belén Saavedra Lozada” into Google and ten thousand hits pop up. The 4 year-old Queens girl was abandoned after her mother was killed in late September. She was found a day later (still in Queens), but went unclaimed for four days. So Children's Services gave her info to the media, and the bonanza began.

In the States, media outlets as far as Modesto, California, Gasden, Alabama and Casper, Wyoming, picked up the story. Internationally, it was picked up by Latin American papers, as well as the Herald (Scotland) and the UK Guardian.

I can understand why the story made international headlines. Lozada is Bolivian, after all, and her grandmothers (in Bolivia) announced they were trying to claim custody; suddenly, the story took an international twist. But what, you might wonder, could a reporter in Scotland possibly add to the story? A little perspective for the pack, if nothing else.

There is not much appetite to learn further about the more mundane circumstances of the case, such as what brought Valery and her mother from Bolivia to America in the first place. Perhaps the lack of interest stems from it being the same old story of poverty and longing for a better life elsewhere. This one, though, deserves an airing if only to update it for the times.