If I mention ex-Atlanta Falcon's quarterback, Michael Vick, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? The fact that he is currently serving a two-year sentence for financing a dog fighting ring? If I mention, recently re-instated football player and new Dallas Cowboy, Adam "Pacman" Jones, what do you think? Night clubs... somebody yelling, "Let it Rainnnnn" and someone (allegedly him) throwing a lot of money at some strippers, which caused a melee that ended with a security guard being severely injured. I could mention Mike Tyson, Allen Iverson, and Floyd Mayweather and many of you, including those who aren't sports fans, can conjure up some scandal that these men have been involved in outside of their profession.
To be fair, let me name some white people... Britney Spears (I don't have to say anymore than that), Lindsey Lohan (ditto), Paris Hilton (super ditto), and Kiefer Sutherland (a short stint in stir for drinking and driving, etc.) Here's where I'm going with this... all of these people have been maligned in the media for their shortcomings and bad behavior. All of us (including yours truly) have watched them being maligned... we laughed, shook our hands, and said, "What were they thinking?" and felt pretty good about our lives because, after all, "I didn't do what THEY did."
Nancy Grace and that crazy woman with the glasses who agrees with every position Nancy has and barks out a rhyme to back her up every night has made a career out of prosecuting people every night on her CNN television show. And don't let someone mistakenly leave a child unattended in a car or something like that and they are crucified on the air. (Nancy just had twins.)
Did you know when she was a prosecutor, the Supreme Court of Georgia has twice commented on Grace's conduct as a prosecutor? In a 1994 heroin trafficking case, Bell vs. State, the court declared a mistrial saying that Grace had "exceeded the wide latitude of closing arguments by drawing comparisons to unrelated murder and rape cases." In 1997 The court was more severe... they overturned the murder-arson conviction of a businessman PRIMARILY because of Grace's court actions, citing "in-appropriate and illegal conduct in the course of the trial." But, nobody is on the air moralizing about that, are they?
In the world of sports... let's look at HBO boxing analyst, Jim Lampley. He is a constant critic of Boxer Floyd Mayweather's out of the ring behavior. Particularly, Mr. Mayweather's penchant for strip clubs. Jim Lampley has been caught in the same Vegas strip clubs himself and last year, he received three years probation for violating a restraining order brought on by an ex-girlfriend who accused him of "domestic abuse".
My point being that we, the public, never hear about journalists who misbehave. These journalists get on the air and pontificate, moralize, and nail athletes and entertainers to the cross for their bad behavior, while their own bad behavior hardly ever makes the air.
Now you know I had to save the best for last, don't you? My favorite TV personality... the one I love to hate... Bill O'Reilly. He has been revealed to be nothing more than a bad tempered, sexist bully. He was sued by a woman last year for making some pretty salacious remarks to her over the phone. He used his clout to not only bury the story but, to try and intimidate her into dropping the suit. At this point, I don't know if the young lady is continuing with the suit or not.
We hold our athletes and entertainers up to ridiculous standards that most of us can't live up to ourselves and, I'm just saying, maybe we should hold the people who report on them up to the same standards. Can you imagine how different and less mean spirited the reporting would be, if we did.
7 comments:
True, the reporting would be less mean spirited but it does serve it's purpose. To make us think and make us want to become more socially aware, therefore better citizens of society. Sadly, there is always backlash and we have people that seek to imitate bad behavior because of the attention we give bad news stories and the cycle just repeats... If we didn't have the Bad Boys (and Girls) of Journalism, our society could be likened to that of the Stepford Wives :-)
I agree with Dione...similar to Dreamy's post about people being attracted to the drama on people's blogs. These people that are reporting and digging for any spec of dirt they can find on someone are just giving the people what they want "Drama". Peoples reputations are being prostituted for the sake of the ones who entertain such foolishness...
That's my piece...
Go B.
Keith I am gonna stay away from this one, okay!!!
Im gonna let the political people and the ones who like to debate handle this one. Go Bytch in particiular!!
Just wanted to let you know I passed through, have a great day
and head over to my page and see if you can figure out these songs that everyone is having a hard time with,lol
I so agree with you Keith, who are they to judge, and not be judged. First of all, i am not one to judge, we all live and we learn, but when you want to go there, be sure that your glass house has no cracks for sure. Great post! Again...you are most def a journalist in the making!
At last, THEY are getting a taste of their own medicine. Mr. Larry Mente's bad behavior is making national headlines. Do I think this will cause his fellow journalists to reconsider how they report on others? No. I do however think that it's nice to see the newscasters being in the news for a while. Who knows maybe they will use a little more discretion when they report on other's. We'll just have to wait and see.
Gotta co-sign on this one and you totally forgot everybody favorite RICHEST oxycontin head Rush Limbaugh!! *lol*
That's the thing, we forget these people fame doesn't make them any less normal. I know I couldn't live if everytime I stepped out my door there were pictures being snapped. Like this morning I went out in no makeup, tank top knit pants and flip flops to take out my trash. I just don't know if fame is worth all that.
Good post!
-OG
@ Keith
Good post, bruh.
I think there are members of the media who want to see athletes mess up. I'm not defending athletes but there is a huge double standard.
Earlier this year, Dana Jacobson (co-host of ESPN's First Take) was at a company sponsored event and was drunk as a skunk spewing profanities into a microphone at a roast for the Mike and Mike show. She was later suspended for 2 weeks. However, I never found the story on espn's website. Wonder what would've happened if Terrell Owens had done the same thing?
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