{"id":15251,"date":"2017-06-16T14:52:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T19:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=15251"},"modified":"2017-06-26T09:41:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T14:41:36","slug":"normalize-your-rights-not-their-stunts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/06\/16\/normalize-your-rights-not-their-stunts\/","title":{"rendered":"Normalize your rights, not their stunts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As much as it pains me to do this, I\u2019m going to give Kathy Griffin an ounce more of press.<\/span><\/p>\n

I regretfully do so as an olive branch to our country\u2019s political divide. I will print this article about this non-issue to highlight the state of our media circus.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe Griffin violated the law in her actions. Her photo did not appear to actively call for violence against our President, so it should be protected speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, I also don\u2019t believe she should be talked about even once more by the end of this piece.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many times do we see some D-list celebrity do something relatively crass or politically incorrect, then the next day publish a weeping apology to the internet?<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more troubling is the next step to this process: repurposing. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Griffin did does not matter–so long as it is found to be free speech. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Anything, and I do mean anything, that receives attention becomes ammo for a political debate. <\/span><\/p>\n

As someone who sells web advertising, I\u2019m aware of the many ways media outlets can jeopardize their content for the sake of ads. Every news outlet in the world suddenly made this story the biggest news piece. <\/span><\/p>\n

The story wasn\u2019t what she did. There\u2019s not enough there to care about. \u201cOne woman has an opinion\u201d should not be breaking news. <\/span><\/p>\n

Soon, the \u201cjournalism\u201d gets past the mainstream clickbaits and the smaller sections of the more reputable papers and bleeds to the openly partisan organizations. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never believe what this crazy liberal did,\u201d and \u201cout of touch conservative proves just why racism is alive and well\u201d among other ludicrous headlines circle around the masses. <\/span><\/p>\n

The goal being that we normalize this behavior and that we increase our comfort levels with those that think like us–or at least want to appear that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re Democrat, Republican or a fan of Vermin Supreme, your political party has experienced challenges this election. Why are we not focusing on that?<\/span><\/p>\n

We subscribe more to what affirms our convictions than we do seriously evaluate that which may make us uncomfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything becomes a talking point to fire at our own communities, for the specific benefit to those outside them. <\/span><\/p>\n

From the conservative side, I have seen little discussion on a cornucopia of interests to the conservative base. That alarms me, as a young person.<\/span><\/p>\n

My generation has many election cycles left to influence our politics and it does not look promising that the values of each party are being taken seriously. If we take something seriously, we can definitively reach a decision. <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, it seems like politics is just another celebrity news cycle. People bring it up for conversation, but only to laugh about our discomfort and problems. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most people want something positive to happen with our government. We\u2019re dealing with a new, technologically connected world. This incredibly globalized world we live in will require leaders that can make these pressing issues heard. <\/span><\/p>\n

Can you imagine trying to get a word in edgewise in a conversation about Kathy Griffin\u2019s political statement? You\u2019d be so intrigued as to by what miracle her name appears to likely reject its nonsense. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what a bunch of people on either side want. They want us to care more about how we feel about Griffin\u2019s statement than we do about her right to make it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps, if we took our rights as seriously as we do every clickbait article, we may make some headway. Instead, it\u2019s marketable to simply call out the other side\u2019s hypocrisy. We\u2019re getting tired of that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Simply calling out the hypocrisy which is prevalent on both sides does not do our country good. <\/span><\/p>\n

That alone leaves said hypocrisy to be repurposed like Griffin\u2019s fiasco. It becomes not about the specific issue or action that we can take to resolve it, but about the way it can make someone feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barton Kleen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Executive Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As much as it pains me to do this, I\u2019m going to give Kathy Griffin an ounce more of press. I regretfully do so as an olive branch to our country\u2019s political divide. I will print this article about this non-issue to highlight the state of our media circus. I don\u2019t believe Griffin violated the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10396,"featured_media":15252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1999,1388,1582],"class_list":["post-15251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-barton-kleen","tag-politics","tag-tartan-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3XZ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/kathygriffin.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15283,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15251\/revisions\/15283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}