Recently, the Houston Press published a piece called "The 10 Hottest Women on the Sex Offender List". Keep in mind the Houston Press is a real newspaper, serving in a democratic society that relies heavily on journalism to keep citizens in formed on such issues as the rising budget, turmoil in the Middle East, our war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many other local concerns. But, instead of talking about that, let's just run a story that ranks the attractiveness of registered sex offenders.
Our handout that discussed the concerns of entertainment in newspapers instead of actual journalism is very applicable. It mentioned the harms running such pieces can do to the process of journalism serving democracy. For starters, stories like this take away from space that could be given to real issues. Also, you are either leaving your reading base uninformed or helping them become adapted to journalism that holds no newsworthiness.
This is a concern journalism is facing. Whatever you call it, it's pretty serious. Look at the way journalism was fixated on Charlie Sheen during upheaval in the Middle East or was fixated on the royal wedding when a series of deadly tornadoes occured. That is not journalism. It's also probably not the demise of journalism either, but it is a concern, and one that makes me pretty pissed off when I turn on the news to hear about an event and end up hearing about a celebrities most recent DUI.
Top 10 Hottest Sex Offenders
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