Wednesday, May 13, 2009
You, Me & the Snoop Dog Story
While huffing and puffing on a treadmill at the gym, lo and behold, I looked up at the TV screen just in time to catch a news story of the "dumb-kind." It was a news story about a member of Snoop Dog's entourage being arrested in Norfolk. Snoop was in Norfolk for a concert. I will never understand why Channel 13 decided this news was "newsy" enough to be the lead story at 11 p.m. last night and again this morning. With all the "real" news happening all around them, they chose to make prominent Snoop Dog's story -- using video of him talking about, smoking and rapping about marijuana. I heard on the radio this morning that President Obama's former minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright was in Hampton Roads. That's news! What kind of image does the Snoop Dog story send to our young men and women. As a country, we are facing one of the worst economic downturns in our history. People are losing their homes and being turned out into the streets because they cannot pay their mortgages. Children go hungry right here in our region and people are dying every day because some idiot decides he or she can solve their problems with a gun. What happened to the hard-hitting, investigative, issues-oriented news gathering of Channel 13's past? Times are hard and people are hurting. We need news that keeps us informed -- not entertainment. We need news that helps us to make informed decisions. We need news that helps us to understand the complex issues faced by the government. We can get entertainment news from Entertainment Tonight or the Insider. I am so tired of black men being portrayed as villains in the media. With this kind of reporting, race relations will take another setback. There's an event coming up on Saturday -- the 12th Annual 200+ Scholars Breakfast. Each year, the Hampton Roads Committee of 200+ Men honors about 300 young black men who are graduating from high school with a 3.0 GPA or better. That's right, young black men are obtaining their goals via education. Not all of our children are gang bangers or thugs. I'm media savvy enough to know that the news can't be all sweet, homey and good. But I'm also savvy enough to know when a news story is hard news versus an attempt to be hard news. In the Snoop Dog story, Channel 13 served as a public relations agent, promoting yet another rapper. Sorry guys, you missed the mark on this one. Let's get back to covering the issues that really mean something to the community. Remember, we rely heavily on you guys in the media to interpret and capsulize the events of the day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Snoop Dog’s image is his career and the media needs to accept responsibility for their influence on our young African American youth, especially the males. Glamorizing the use of marijuana without informing our youth about the dire consequences for their educational endeavors is irresponsible. Colleges bound youth with drug convictions are denied federal financial support (FAFSA), so unless they are independently wealthy, their future is grim. We all know the top athletes in Hampton Roads and we attend the sporting events, cheering with high expectations. How many of us actually visited a classroom this year and exhibited the same “you can do it” energy to those African Americans in Hampton Roads who struggled to complete high school despite insurmountable odds? Who are the African American high school students who logged the most volunteer hours? We need to highlight the high school graduations, the accomplishments and educational achievements so that all youth can believe that they too, can achieve. Waiting until the students reach college to reward their accomplishments, only helps the less than 50% that make it out of high school and the less than 20% who actually make it to college. We’ve got to do more….. Debra C.
ReplyDelete