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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

Trash in the news

As a student who is looking to build a career in the art of journalism, I must say I’m extremely disappointed.

No, this isn’t another 700-word word rant on the merging of the IU School of Journalism.

Been there, done that. The school still lost its independence.

This time my beef is directly with the news itself.

It’s no secret that national and international news is more ridiculous and gossip-focused than before, and usually I just take that with a grain of salt and divert my attention from the bad tabloids that are clustered at the grocery store checkout counter.

I was irritated at the worldwide frenzy surrounding another Kardashian wedding and miffed at the acute attention focus on Jennifer Lawrence’s declaration of a starvation-less existence.

I was disgusted at CNN.com ’s separate subsection of news surrounding Justin Bieber.

It’s stupid, it’s ridiculous, it’s not news, but, unfortunately, it’s not surprising.

However, last week when ESPN and “SportsCenter” focused a large portion of their morning coverage discussing the showering habits of Michael Sam, the first openly gay professional football player, I had seen enough.

Whether or not you are under the impression that homosexuals are living in sin or not, I think anyone can come to the agreement that chatting it up on a national sports network about the showering tendencies of a specific player is completely wrong.

The interview, conducted on a morning episode of “SportsCenter,” featured ESPN reporter Josina Anderson, who asked how Sam was fitting in with his teammates.

She could have talked about his football performance or his position as a rookie.

Instead, she talked about something completely inappropriate.

She explained that Sam’s teammates had reiterated to her his tendency to wait until the other players were finished or to turn away when others were changing.

If you think that Michael Sam was truly the first gay NFL player, you’re naïve.

Sadly, Sam’s attempt at honesty and respect for his fellow teammates and NFL players has been made the spotlight of unnecessary media discussion again.

Obviously this situation is that of uncharted waters, and certain news coverage is to be expected.

But continuously isolating this man by discussing everything short of what body wash he uses post-practice is ridiculous.

I’m tired of pulling up national news websites or watching television broadcasts and finding this trash getting any coverage at all.

I’m so disturbed by the notion that I live in a world among people who are more concerned with Michael Sam’s sexual orientation and shower schedule than that of ISIS and news of true substance.

If you don’t think that’s accurate, ask a couple people on the sidewalk which they know more about, the beheaded American journalist and his murderers or the never-ending saga of the public figure that is now Michael Sam.

cnmcelwa@indiana.edu

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