Week 6 Media Blog Forum

Topic 1

I'd say someone who has gone too far in their freedom of speech is white nationalist and Alt-Right representative Richard B. Spencer. His ideas are centered around essentially making the U.S. completely white, stating multiple times that there is "no place" for other ethnicities in our country.

Video: Richard B Spencer talks to Al Jazeera

While there is a multitude of examples of him spouting off his controversial rhetoric, one of his more recent tirades saw him hail Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, as the "Aryan Avatar." This came after Tom Brady led an improbable comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. Spencer said Brady's Superbowl LI win was a "win for the white race."

I'm a New England Patriots fan and I have been watching Tom Brady since I was five years old and this just made me sick. Brady dedicated this performance to his mother, who was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. Tears flew down Brady's face when he got a chance to embrace his mother at the end of the game, it was a huge moment for him and his family. To have that undermined by a white supremacist, internet troll spouting this nonsense is beyond disappointing.

This was an absolutely sickening display and ultimately is what the alt-right attempts to do. They try to rile people up to spread their message and earn free publicity because of statements like the one's he made about Tom Brady. They are able to market there ideas for virtually no money and are able to reach a huge audience, and though most people don't agree with alt-right ideas, there are people out there that do. These ideas and radical statements about white supremacy are reaching such a broad audience because of the nature of the comments, that they end up reaching there target audience with ease.

It's tough to combat a structure like this. I find it important to silence people like this, to make those ideas disappear. You can't remove their first amendment rights and you can't just not react to racist statements like the ones Spencer made about the Super Bowl. However, as individuals we need to understand that a lot of people online may be trying to get a rise out of others. Trying to argue with a person that wants you to argue automatically chalks up a win for that other person. Turning the other cheek, can sometimes take away the power of radical statements that are brought on by people like Spencer.

Topic 2

The Media is under a lot of scrutiny from the Right these days thanks to the current administration's stance against journalists in the U.S. I personally believe that the media can be a bit biased in it's coverage and I would even go as far as to say that it is a large reason why Trump was elected in the first place.

 I look at the current climate in this country and to me the biggest area of division in this country is rural vs. urban communities. Even more so then, race, religion, or gender. During the recession a few years ago people in urban areas who lost their jobs recovered by finding lower level jobs at places like grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. They would do this out of necessity until the economy picked up again. People from rural areas, however, had nothing to fall back on. So when they lost their jobs at places like farms and mills they had to either move to a new town to find work or live with no job. While cities have mostly recovered from the recession, a lot of rural areas are still recovering from that difficult economic time. You don't see many news stories concerned with thoughts on how to fix those things. Due to this, people from rural areas tend to feel under-represented and ignored in today's political climate and feel like their voices aren't being heard.

Unfortunately, someone like Donald Trump found a way to paint himself as someone who would stand up for these everymen. Whether he will actually do this remains to be seen. People from these rural areas began to support Trump and because of his rhetoric these people became painted by the media as racist, misogynist, white nationalists that don't care about people that aren't white, straight, or christian. This created a dichotomy where people from cities felt there way of life was threatened by people in rural areas and vice versa.


While I definitely don't support Trump and his ideas for the country, people that support him really get a bad wrap. Sure there are some of his supporters that are legitimate racists, but I would consider them a minority. A lot of Trump's supporters are just people that want to see their communities repaired. They simply want their voices heard, they're tired of being misrepresented, tired of working hard and feeling like they aren't seeing any return. The media paints Trump supporters as an amorphous white blob of racism and fascism, this is because the media is largely uninformed and not looking at the big picture. 

So while I mostly disagree with a lot of what the Right has to say I can still see why people from those rural areas feel upset and under represented. In the SPJ code of ethics under 'Seek the Truth and Report it' it says "Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless." I look at a lot of headlines today and the rural opinions always seem to be swept under the rug. Not really giving a voice to the voiceless, eh? 

I had no idea the trouble many of the rural areas faced until I read articles like this one by Harvest Media. I want to challenge the media to do what they are supposed to do and represent the people. That way, we don't get narcissistic, fear mongering, xenophobic, billionaires representing them and dividing this country even further.