Blogger Virginia Montanez, aka PittGirl from PittGirl Blog, was fired from her employer, NEED, this week for revealing her identity on her blog.
Montanez has garnered a loyal fan base in the post-industrial, pre-Armageddon city of Pittsburgh. Before PittGirl the only things Pittsburgh was known for was as the filming location of Inspector Gadget, Queer as Folk (USA), and as the home of ketchup and pickle heiress Theresa Heinz, wife of would-be President Kerry. But now the City of Bridges is also known as home town of a scholarship fund, which doesn’t see the inherent need for publicity, and heartlessly fires its communications and marketing director.
NEED was an unknown fund in Pittsburgh, offering scholarships to the African American community in the Pittsburgh. Today, it is on the tongue tips of thousands of loyal fans of PittGirl.
When Montanez decided to come out on her blog, her employer felt she was a distraction. Evidently in the upside down world of Pittsburgh, free advertising is a distraction. Instead of making a public statement saying that the opinions of Ms. Montanez are hers and hers alone and do not reflect those of NEED’s, they simply fired her, because maximum exposure in a down economy, which affects the black community disproportionately is such an amazing fund-raising environment, that they just don’t need to have any more free PR.
While many on PittGirl’s blog have said it is NEED’s loss, Blanca believes that it more than NEED’s loss. It is a loss for free speech. It is a loss for the blogosphere. But most of all, it is a loss for the people who rely so much on NEED. The negative publicity, which is fully deserved by the Sylvester Pace and his staff, is going to cost them sorely-needed donations, which benefit those who can least afford to lose them.
This injustice needs to be corrected. This mistake must be made right. This error must be erased.
The only fair and equitable thing is to reinstate Ms. Montanez and have Mr. Pace resign.
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