Over the past week the internet has been abuzz with pictures of a mustached man in a red sweater. The name of this beloved icon? Kenneth Bone.
Some of you have probably been living under a sweater and are now wondering “Who is Ken Bone, and why is he so popular?” Well, the last debate was a town hall where undecided voters asked the candidates questions about their policies. Ken Bone was one of these voters. This seems fairly insignificant. So why is Bone getting all this attention?
Well for one, his name sounds a lot like “Can Bone,” and sex jokes have been rampant among his fans. Second, his iconic red sweater and friendly, disarming demeanor seem to have won over many viewers.
These, alongside with the craziness of this election have been contributing factors in the ascent of the now famous Ken Bone memes.
In the days after the debate, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and even 24-hour news networks were ablaze with talk about everyone’s favorite new celebrity.
But last week, controversy broke. Bone answered questions on an AMA on Reddit, where thousands of fans read about their hero’s life and his joking responses to their comments.
But, for some reason, rather than making a new account to answer these questions, Bone decided to use his actual Reddit account. Because of this, users were able to read into his “dark history.” Many people and news agencies have come out of the “Bone Zone,” and have criticized Bone for his comments on pornographic pictures and on the Trayvon Martin controversy.
This frustrates me to no end. I’m not in love with Ken Bone by any means, but I think he’s a great meme, and I don’t like the level of scrutiny that people have put him to.
Reddit history is like an incognito browsing window. Do we really want our darkest searches to define us? He wasn’t engaging in hate speech. He was just expressing his personal opinions, which, while quirky, weren’t harmful.
But my bigger problem with this Ken Bone controversy is how it demonstrates the flaws in our news system. After a dramatic debate between two presidential candidates, the main take-away is a meme?
When that happens, something is seriously wrong with our journalistic process. Understandably, this is because of how thoroughly the campaign is covered and has almost been beaten to death over the past year.
But there’s so much news to be covered — international affairs, business developments, anything.
And it makes sense for comedians and TV personalities to become engaged with people like Ken Bone. But when CNN had an interview with him asking about his red sweater, I started to question the validity of our entire news system. Not to mention how the Washington Post, CBS News and GQ all have stories about his Reddit history. It’s to the point where journalism is about viewership and covering connectable content, rather than things of substance.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit I’m a hypocrite. I’m writing an article about Ken Bone, so I’m part of this problem.
I could try to defend myself, saying that I’m an opinion columnist for a college newspaper which gives me a license that regular journalists don’t. But I don’t believe that. And neither should you. As a 21st-century society, we need to appreciate memes and news separately.
And as consumers of news, we need to hold writers accountable — myself included — for covering trivialities instead of tragedies.
ctdombro@indiana.edu
