• by Amanda , April 11, 2007

Lewd comments and paternity tests seem to be on every media pundit’s mind this week. Reading around in the various blogs and watching commentary/news shows, the talk is all about whether the media spends too much time covering these seemingly worthless events. Celebrity weight loss/gains. Rosie v. Trump. Anna Nicole sexual exploits. These events are covered a lot, and they’re covered by everyone.

I’ll be honest: I don’t care about Anna Nicole’s baby. I don’t care who was kicked off of American Idol (mostly because if I’m really interested, I’ll just watched the show). I know that, according to some, 18-24 year old women are supposed to care about celebrity gossip and fluff. But I don’t, and I know many women my age who don’t either.

I can tell you what we do care about: Imus’ comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. That is a topic which has received a lot of coverage this week, and I can only say that I am very happy it has. Racism and sexism run rampant through our society today and I am glad that another case of unmistakable prejudice is being discussed. I fully believe in free speech, but I also believe that offensive and degrading comments like Imus’ should be recognized as completely unfounded and demeaning. Women around campus have been discussing these comments and are finally speaking out against stereotypes which tag them “hoes”, or “nappy headed”, or dumb blondes, or just women, or various other offensive labels. Imus is being crucified for expressing the prejudices that some people assume to be reality, but by condemning him and his words people are (hopefully) realizing that what was said isn’t appropriate or true.

So, I do have to admit that the news has been annoying me lately. But coverage of the Imus scandal and the discussion which has ensued reminds me why I started watching news in first place. Good news will inform people of what is going on in the world and spark discussion which might not happen otherwise.