Okay, I am usually a very "Don't Care about Politics" person. That is just who I am. I definitely did not get that trait from my family seeing how my dad works on Taxation and my sister majored in Political Science BUT that doesn't mean little things can make me angry. Today in Media Studies I was researching the political stances of "The Mirror" (a British Tabloid-like Newspaper) and it said this:
The Mirror's front page on 4 November 2004, after the re-election of George W. Bush as U.S. President, read "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?". It provided a list of states and their average IQ, showing the Bush states all below average intelligence (except for Virginia), and all Kerry states at or above average intelligence.
For some reason that really ticked me off. I do not, at all, think it is okay to called 59 MILLION people dumb because of a freakin' political view. I personally believe that newspaper should keep their opinions to themselves. The fact that ONE company writes that is SO wrong. And the fact that North Carolina was one of those states that they were talking about just made me more frustrated.
Moral of this rant: Newspaper should keep their political (and religions, etc.) opinions to themselves. Just tell the news. "George W. Bush was re-elected as US President" would have worked.
^^I don't mean for any of this to seem offensive to anyone. It is just me ranting about my personal opinion.
but Grace... that's exactly the point! That newspaper headline made you angry, and so you're posting about it on your blog. You remembered it. You're talking about it. You even know the name of the tabloid. Even if you don't agree with the ideas, you're spreading them by putting them on the blogosphere. The newspaper infuriated you, but it did precisely what it wanted to: it elicited a response, and quite a strong one at that. In journalism, it is often more useful to make enemies than to make friends. If you had seen the article you suggested they run, you likely wouldn't have thought twice about it, and you most definitely wouldn't have written about it on your blog. Think about controversial shows and reporters like Howard Stern or Stephen Colbert.
ReplyDeleteA little journalistic perspective for you. They don't want to make your life horrible, they just want to make you angry enough to talk. :)
i never thought about that! you are SO rightt (i mean you are the newspaper editor - haha) they DID spark a reaction and i DID talk about it.
ReplyDeletewell...
well done british newspaper(: