I AM PUBLISHED!!!
By Casey Hampton | New Voices for the Orlando Sentinel
Posted June 18, 2005
Another celebrity trial come and gone. Michael Jackson was acquitted and walked out to start rebuilding his shattered life and career. The fact that he was a superstar before people my age were born was the only thing that makes him and every other person charged with sexually molesting a child different.
Think about how much news was overshadowed because of Jackson's arrest last November and subsequent trial in the proceeding months. An election occurred without incident in Iraq (in addition to more than 1,700 servicemen and women laying down their lives in that country), a new pope was elected, President Bush was inaugurated for a second term, and many Floridians are still reeling from the hurricanes of 2004.
Yet, Jackson's exploits have been big news for months. The outcome of his trial is minuscule compared to these events.
My favorite newsman, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, once said, "We should never let the news get above us, and never let ourselves get above the news." Yet, sadly, this has been commonplace in America since O.J. Simpson's trial in 1995. Consider the wall-to-wall coverage of Winona Ryder, Robert Blake and Martha Stewart.
It seems to me that the news is above the individuals in that we now sensationalize trials more than the real news that affects citizens of this country. I wish that, for the sake of journalistic integrity in this country, news outlets could promote news that affects the way I live my life, and the way the world functions on a daily basis.
Does Stewart going to jail really change anything in my life at Jacksonville University? Does Simpson walking out of a California courtroom in 1995 mean anything to me in the broad scheme of things?
The answer is no, folks.
Furthermore, the answer for the major media outlets in this country is to consider the difference between real news and sensational news, so that I (as well as the generations who succeed me) can be better stewards of the world we live in.
Casey Hampton, 20, is an English major at Jacksonville University and graduated from New Smyrna Beach High School in 2003.
Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel
*Anyone else agree? Thoughts? Let me know and thanks for your encouragement to do this :)*
Posted June 18, 2005
Another celebrity trial come and gone. Michael Jackson was acquitted and walked out to start rebuilding his shattered life and career. The fact that he was a superstar before people my age were born was the only thing that makes him and every other person charged with sexually molesting a child different.
Think about how much news was overshadowed because of Jackson's arrest last November and subsequent trial in the proceeding months. An election occurred without incident in Iraq (in addition to more than 1,700 servicemen and women laying down their lives in that country), a new pope was elected, President Bush was inaugurated for a second term, and many Floridians are still reeling from the hurricanes of 2004.
Yet, Jackson's exploits have been big news for months. The outcome of his trial is minuscule compared to these events.
My favorite newsman, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, once said, "We should never let the news get above us, and never let ourselves get above the news." Yet, sadly, this has been commonplace in America since O.J. Simpson's trial in 1995. Consider the wall-to-wall coverage of Winona Ryder, Robert Blake and Martha Stewart.
It seems to me that the news is above the individuals in that we now sensationalize trials more than the real news that affects citizens of this country. I wish that, for the sake of journalistic integrity in this country, news outlets could promote news that affects the way I live my life, and the way the world functions on a daily basis.
Does Stewart going to jail really change anything in my life at Jacksonville University? Does Simpson walking out of a California courtroom in 1995 mean anything to me in the broad scheme of things?
The answer is no, folks.
Furthermore, the answer for the major media outlets in this country is to consider the difference between real news and sensational news, so that I (as well as the generations who succeed me) can be better stewards of the world we live in.
Casey Hampton, 20, is an English major at Jacksonville University and graduated from New Smyrna Beach High School in 2003.
Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel
*Anyone else agree? Thoughts? Let me know and thanks for your encouragement to do this :)*