Today's front page on the Gazette-Times is very revealing - at least about what they consider priorities in our community.
The big, above the fold headline is: Expression policy roils LBCC. Apparently this is all a late-breaking "shock wave" from a "controversial" art exhibit at LBCC last fall that "depicted men performing sex acts." A careful reading of the article doesn't turn up any more details than that about what exactly (or explicitly?) was "depicted," so it's a little difficult for me to get too worked up about it.
I think it's not breaking news to anyone that men do, on occasion, "perform sex acts." And the history of art is rich in nudes. So...This is the biggest news story of the day in the eyes of the GT? No lives were lost, no lives were ruined. Some sensibilities were apparently offended, but, let's face it, we live in a society that offers up all manner of sensibility-offending material every day. That being the case, it's up to each of us to pick and choose what we want to invest our time, energy and angst into in response, and which things just cause us to - literally or not - turn the other cheek.
And speaking of offensive subjects...Just below the art article, but still above the fold, is yet another article about the committed racist loser, Andrew Oswalt. Long story short: He is running for a seat on OSU's Student Fees Committee, because he is desperate for attention. The GT is all too happy to give him that attention.
But the fact remains that if the local media stopped giving this racist loser so much attention, he would likely go away, and run off to be with his five or six all-male aryan (intentionally lowercase) loser cohorts. In any case, the fact that a known attention-seeker is seeking attention does not warrant a lengthy article, but that's what we, and he, got.
Then, finally, if you make it to the bottom of the front page, squeezed into a couple of column inches, you'll see a headline that might just have some larger relevance: United Way report details region's poverty. Let me repeat that, in bold: United Way report details region's poverty.
Here's the first line from that story: "Despite positive economic signs in the area, nearly half of the mid-Willamette Valley's residents are living in poverty or are among the ranks of the working poor, according to a report from the United Way." There's that income inequality again, folks. We have some of the worst in the nation, right here in Benton County. This is a BIG issue. But it's by far the shortest of the three articles.
No lives are derailed by "sexy" art displays. Even a lone and lonely racist loser crying out for attention, despicable as he is, isn't able to shatter lives or families. Those aren't scandals - they're juicy come-ons to try and sell newspapers. But thousands of people living in poverty? That is a scandal. That is real news. And that is something we all need to focus in on.
That includes the GT, which does the community no favors by selling the sizzle, and shortchanging their responsibilities as a local news outlet.
The big, above the fold headline is: Expression policy roils LBCC. Apparently this is all a late-breaking "shock wave" from a "controversial" art exhibit at LBCC last fall that "depicted men performing sex acts." A careful reading of the article doesn't turn up any more details than that about what exactly (or explicitly?) was "depicted," so it's a little difficult for me to get too worked up about it.
I think it's not breaking news to anyone that men do, on occasion, "perform sex acts." And the history of art is rich in nudes. So...This is the biggest news story of the day in the eyes of the GT? No lives were lost, no lives were ruined. Some sensibilities were apparently offended, but, let's face it, we live in a society that offers up all manner of sensibility-offending material every day. That being the case, it's up to each of us to pick and choose what we want to invest our time, energy and angst into in response, and which things just cause us to - literally or not - turn the other cheek.
And speaking of offensive subjects...Just below the art article, but still above the fold, is yet another article about the committed racist loser, Andrew Oswalt. Long story short: He is running for a seat on OSU's Student Fees Committee, because he is desperate for attention. The GT is all too happy to give him that attention.
But the fact remains that if the local media stopped giving this racist loser so much attention, he would likely go away, and run off to be with his five or six all-male aryan (intentionally lowercase) loser cohorts. In any case, the fact that a known attention-seeker is seeking attention does not warrant a lengthy article, but that's what we, and he, got.
Then, finally, if you make it to the bottom of the front page, squeezed into a couple of column inches, you'll see a headline that might just have some larger relevance: United Way report details region's poverty. Let me repeat that, in bold: United Way report details region's poverty.
Here's the first line from that story: "Despite positive economic signs in the area, nearly half of the mid-Willamette Valley's residents are living in poverty or are among the ranks of the working poor, according to a report from the United Way." There's that income inequality again, folks. We have some of the worst in the nation, right here in Benton County. This is a BIG issue. But it's by far the shortest of the three articles.
No lives are derailed by "sexy" art displays. Even a lone and lonely racist loser crying out for attention, despicable as he is, isn't able to shatter lives or families. Those aren't scandals - they're juicy come-ons to try and sell newspapers. But thousands of people living in poverty? That is a scandal. That is real news. And that is something we all need to focus in on.
That includes the GT, which does the community no favors by selling the sizzle, and shortchanging their responsibilities as a local news outlet.
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