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Media BIAS and LGBT

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by BookDragon, Feb 26, 2014.

  1. BookDragon

    Full Member

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    Location:
    Cambridge, UK
    Gender:
    Female (trans*)
    Gender Pronoun:
    She
    Sexual Orientation:
    Other
    Out Status:
    Out to everyone
    There are countless news outlets out there reporting LGBT issues around the world. Obviously, you expect some of them to be basically crap, but for the most part you expect them to report things how they actually are.

    Some of you may know PinkNews which claims to be "Europe's Largest Gay News Service".

    I follow them on twitter and facebook so I can find out what's going on around the world.

    When I read news I always try and read it carefully and consider other sides of arguments because that's just the way my brain works. I know a lot of the time news outlets have SOME form of agenda but they are usually able to hide it fairly well due to their actual reporting. Which incidentally is where PinkNews comes in...

    So this morning I see a new headline. "South African TV reporter: ‘I think it’s fine to be homophobic’", and I'm sitting there thinking how little that actually suprises me given the few things I know of south africa and the handful of south african men I've known all basically thought the same thing. Then, I realised that was a stupid thing to think and decided to read it through anyway.

    This is one of those times when the media bias is so heavily in your face it's almost insulting.

    I read it and it says almost immediately that the full message was "“I think it’s fine to be homophobic, but to imprison someone for life because of their sexual preference is quite hefty... “Imprisoning a homosexual for life is like killing a squirrel cause it stole your cashews.””

    Guy makes a statement about how he thinks it's OK to feel that way (homophobic) as long as you keep it to yourself. Just to be clear, this reporter (who as best I can tell is black), is asked in response " Is it OK to be racist as long as I don’t beat you to a pulp?” to which he responds that he thinks it is.

    Now I don't necessarily agree with the sentiment that it's OK to hate people for things they can't change, BUT his message was bloody clear. If you hate these people keep it to your god damn self and stop over-exaggerating the problem. Yet for the sake of hits, this news outlet cut out the part of his statement that didn't make him sound like a complete bastard.

    Earlier in the week they announced that "UK confirms no aid will go to Ugandan Government in wake of anti-gay law" despite the fact that they stopped doing that last year due to corruption.

    It just bothers me that in a world where we have people constantly telling us that all the things we say to them about LGBT issues are outright lies, I am still able to find huge news outlets who are willing to lie to such an extent for the sake of a new headline...

    EDIT: I also note that for some reason the comment I made on the website pointing this out appears to have been removed