"What are people bitching about today?"
Seriously, that's what I ask myself when I load up Wren's Nest every day. And after I read some of the comments, the next quote going through my head is, "Whataboutthebaby? Isthebabystillalive? Withthewhiningandtheyellingandtheyellingandthewhiningandtheyelling...shecandie!" (Yay Foamy!)
Today's article that ticked me off: A student Pagan organization gets started up at Eastern New Mexico University, and they get a public-relations piece in their local newspaper. The article is fluffy, makes them all look like bunnies, etc. Typical PR piece that is written by a reporter who focuses as much time on interviewing the Christian groups to find out their reaction to the Pagan group as he does on letting the Pagan group explain itself.
Okay, I'm NOT saying that the students who were interviewed should have been SO fluffy about their explanations of Paganism and their particular group. But I do know from experience that reporters often WANT to put a particular spin on the article (no matter how much they claim their reporting is non-biased...their main concern IS writing an article that gets attention) and often mis-quote or misunderstand what you're saying, and it makes you look bad. When I was interviewed for my school paper (typical Samhain story..."Ooh, there's a group of Pagans and Witches on campus! How sensational!") I started off explaining things as no-nonsense as possible. It was obvious the reporter didn't get it and didn't really care to. So I had to dumb-down what I was saying. She still didn't get it, and I had to dumb it down some more. When I read the article, I was like, "WTF? I didn't say THAT, and certainly not in THAT context!" Nothing quite like being misquoted and having your words taken out of context to make you feel like you just did the Pagan community a disservice when all you really tried to do was get the reporter to understand so she WOULDN'T write...well...what she wrote.
So what pisses me off is that after going through this myself, seeing Pagans jump all over the group in the article because their panties are in a bundle. I mean, what do they WANT the group to tell a reporter who is writing an article about a new Pagan group in an area where there wasn't one previously? "Yes, a bunch of us cast hexes and curses, we love the dark side, and many of us practice in the nude." Yes, that might be true...but you KNOW what will happen: the reporter will jump on that, sensationalize it, the group's community will get scared and run them out of town, and the Pagan community who comments on it on Wren's Nest will bitch about how this student group is a bunch of posers who doesn't represent the majority of the Pagan community so they DESERVE to be run out of town.
The acronym was fluffy crap, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was one thing taken out of context by the reporter. And no, not every living thing on earth has two sexes. The rest of it? Yeah, it was fluffy, but seriously...if I was a student and wanting to present a face to the community to let them know our new group is harmless so please let us practice in peace, I'd probably say hexes and curses are prohibited too.
Also: Notice how not a single point brought up about the nature of Paganism is stated in a way that applies to ALL Pagans, but only applies to their group.
So what's the big deal? Why are other Pagans bitching about this group and the article about them? Is it because they need something to bitch about? Because they need to find some kind of persecution? Or that the group members practice their Paganism differently than the commenters do so the group must be "wrong"? Why do the people commenting feel the need to tear the group a new collective asshole instead of supporting their bid to become an official student group that CAN do some good in the community?
I need to stop reading the comments on Wren's Nest and just stick to reading the news.
Today's article that ticked me off: A student Pagan organization gets started up at Eastern New Mexico University, and they get a public-relations piece in their local newspaper. The article is fluffy, makes them all look like bunnies, etc. Typical PR piece that is written by a reporter who focuses as much time on interviewing the Christian groups to find out their reaction to the Pagan group as he does on letting the Pagan group explain itself.
Okay, I'm NOT saying that the students who were interviewed should have been SO fluffy about their explanations of Paganism and their particular group. But I do know from experience that reporters often WANT to put a particular spin on the article (no matter how much they claim their reporting is non-biased...their main concern IS writing an article that gets attention) and often mis-quote or misunderstand what you're saying, and it makes you look bad. When I was interviewed for my school paper (typical Samhain story..."Ooh, there's a group of Pagans and Witches on campus! How sensational!") I started off explaining things as no-nonsense as possible. It was obvious the reporter didn't get it and didn't really care to. So I had to dumb-down what I was saying. She still didn't get it, and I had to dumb it down some more. When I read the article, I was like, "WTF? I didn't say THAT, and certainly not in THAT context!" Nothing quite like being misquoted and having your words taken out of context to make you feel like you just did the Pagan community a disservice when all you really tried to do was get the reporter to understand so she WOULDN'T write...well...what she wrote.
So what pisses me off is that after going through this myself, seeing Pagans jump all over the group in the article because their panties are in a bundle. I mean, what do they WANT the group to tell a reporter who is writing an article about a new Pagan group in an area where there wasn't one previously? "Yes, a bunch of us cast hexes and curses, we love the dark side, and many of us practice in the nude." Yes, that might be true...but you KNOW what will happen: the reporter will jump on that, sensationalize it, the group's community will get scared and run them out of town, and the Pagan community who comments on it on Wren's Nest will bitch about how this student group is a bunch of posers who doesn't represent the majority of the Pagan community so they DESERVE to be run out of town.
The acronym was fluffy crap, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was one thing taken out of context by the reporter. And no, not every living thing on earth has two sexes. The rest of it? Yeah, it was fluffy, but seriously...if I was a student and wanting to present a face to the community to let them know our new group is harmless so please let us practice in peace, I'd probably say hexes and curses are prohibited too.
Also: Notice how not a single point brought up about the nature of Paganism is stated in a way that applies to ALL Pagans, but only applies to their group.
So what's the big deal? Why are other Pagans bitching about this group and the article about them? Is it because they need something to bitch about? Because they need to find some kind of persecution? Or that the group members practice their Paganism differently than the commenters do so the group must be "wrong"? Why do the people commenting feel the need to tear the group a new collective asshole instead of supporting their bid to become an official student group that CAN do some good in the community?
I need to stop reading the comments on Wren's Nest and just stick to reading the news.