The political media is guilty too
At a time when the media’s credibility is already
questionable, a wave of sexual harassment allegations is surfacing through the
White House press corps and broadcast networks. The growing list of political
media men accused of sexual misconduct include:
·
Glenn Thrush, The New York Times
·
Charlie Rose, CBS
·
Michael Oreskes, NPR
·
Lockhart Steele, Vox
·
Hamilton Fish, The New Republic
·
Leon Wieseltier, The Atlantic
The claims have opened the media up to charges of hypocrisy as
it is currently working to expose sexual harassment and assault allegations
within the entertainment industry and in the political arena. According to
Jeffrey McCall, a professor of media studies at DePauw University, “it is
difficult for the news media to parade around as haughty overseers of right and
wrong in broader contexts of society when they clearly have in-house confusion
about first principles of decency.”
What makes the field of media prone to abuse? Just like
entertainment and politics, “journalism is a competitive, male-dominated
industry where the right contacts can make or break a career – a fact that
could have helped drive and cover up the misconduct”, said Steven Livingston, a
media studies professor at George Washington University.
Apparently, female reporters feel their careers would be put
into jeopardy if they spoke out sooner, making sexual misconduct an institutional problem that has long existed as an open secret.
With the problem being widespread, how is the public
able to trust that the media is providing honest and fair coverage of the
misconduct of politicians, if they are engaging in the behavior themselves? How
involved have they been involved in the cover up sexual misconduct in politics
by opting to not report stories on behalf of other men?
Does the sheer magnitude of new allegations within the
news industry cause you to trust the media less than before?
It has always disgusted me how the media tries to sweep sexual abuse and misconduct under the rug on a daily basis. Its very sickening, especially as a woman who has to worry about this happening to myself every time I set foot on campus. You just never know who the next undercover creep will be. I saw something in the news recently about how a student from our school was charged with multiple rapes in his own dorm room, but it didn't stay on the news cycle for more than 24 hours. It just amazes me what's really important to the media. It comes down to keeping the population in complete ignorance to the issues that happen right next door versus being notified every time our president decides to tweet.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you brought some light upon the issue of sexual abuse and misconduct. Although I am happy to see more people coming forward to bring awareness to the issue, I'm sad to think of all the pain that these women (and men!) faced for so long. In a world where we work towards gender equality, it is a shame to see fields that are indeed "male dominated" have such a negative rep.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic that most people don't know or really think about, myself included. The facts are saddening that we still have to live in a world where things like this happen and people try to push it under a rug. Media has such a large control of how the public views things and conduct like this should never go unaddressed, but it can because they hold a lot of power. The problem is that the public really holds the power and until people realize that things will be harder to change.
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