Report to Readers: A ‘Monitor’ story read far beyond Concord

When reporter Tricia L. Nadolny was working on her story about Lisa Biron last week, I knew it was going to be well read. It had allegations of awful crime and religious hypocrisy. It had FBI men swooping into Manchester to make a dramatic arrest in a local courtroom. It had a missing gun and 200 rounds of ammunition. There was talk of Biron fleeing to Cuba.

I knew local readers would be fascinated – and horrified. What I didn’t quite anticipate was the national attention. Since we published Nadolny’s story on Saturday, it has spread far and wide on the internet. On concordmonitor.com, a typical big story might get 4,000 reads. This one has been read by more than 67,000 people.

Who has linked to it?

Well, for starters, The Raw Story, which describes itself as “a progressive news site that focuses on stories often ignored in the mainstream media.” And Conservative Babylon, a site that claims to expose “the hypocrisy of the ‘Family Values’ crowd, one right-winger at a time.”

The website of the American Bar Association was most interested in the unusual courtroom arrest. There’s a link on a site that seems passionately devoted to news about pornography. And there are links on multiple a gay sites interested in Biron’s connection to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has fought gay marriage among other issues.

Biron, if you somehow missed the hubbub, is the Manchester lawyer accused of taking a teenage girl to Canada, having her engage in sexual activity and convincing her to let it be filmed. If convicted, she faces a long, long sentence in federal prison. At this point, she’s scheduled for trial in January.

Our message to readers in Concord and beyond: Stay tuned.