Highbrow Magazine - free speech https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/free-speech en After Prolonged Press-Bashing, More Constructive Media Criticism Now Flourishes https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12012-after-prolonged-press-bashing-more-constructive-media-criticism-now-flourishes <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Media</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 04/06/2021 - 12:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1trumppress_andrew_dallos-creative_commons.jpg?itok=ZZlSPYAR"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1trumppress_andrew_dallos-creative_commons.jpg?itok=ZZlSPYAR" width="480" height="456" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This article was originally published in </strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/after-prolonged-period-of-press-bashing-a-more-constructive-form-of-media-criticism-is-now-flourishing-156449" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong>The Conversation</strong></a><strong>. It’s republished here with permission.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Over the past several years, and maybe even longer, it seems as if every day brings a new round of attacks on the American press.</p> <p> </p> <p>Some of these attacks come under the guise of criticism: accusations of being “fake news”; arguments that journalists are biased. But some more seriously threaten journalists themselves. Just recently, Fox News host <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/11/tucker-carlson-taylor-lorenz-fox/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Tucker Carlson unleashed</a> what was described as a “calculated and cruel” verbal assault against <em>New York Times</em> reporter Taylor Lorenz repeatedly on his show. Some rallies for Donald Trump even saw attendees displaying threats of <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-man-behind-journalist-rope-tree" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">lynching reporters on a T-shirt</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>This kind of criticism – attempting to delegitimize the press – serves to undermine trust in the work that journalists do. But even if these attacks on the press seem prominent now, they are part of a decades-long trend.</p> <p> </p> <p>The public’s trust in the media began declining in the mid-1970s. By 2020, a <a href="https://www.journalism.org/2020/08/31/americans-see-skepticism-of-news-media-as-healthy-say-public-trust-in-the-institution-can-improve/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pew Research Center survey</a> found that more than half of the American public had either “not too much” confidence in the news media or none at all.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>We bring the expertise of academics to the public.</strong></p> <p>That erosion reflected a growing distrust of institutions and a trend toward political partisanship that sent readers toward news outlets that reflected their own points of view. The rise of conservative critics of the mainstream press also contributed to this erosion of media trust.</p> <p> </p> <p>Over the past five years, though, another kind of press criticism has come to prominence after a period of marginalization. This brand of press criticism takes a free and independent press as a necessity for life in a democratic society.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead of seeking to delegitimize the press, these critics are simultaneously explaining the workings of the press to the public and holding it accountable in its role as the public’s representative and watchdog.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2media_donkeyhote-creative_commons.jpg" style="height:428px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Explaining and holding accountable</strong></p> <p>In recent weeks, these <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/media-police-statements-atlanta-spa-shootings-jay-baker/2021/03/18/83f1b438-87ec-11eb-8a8b-5cf82c3dffe4_story.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">critics have pointed out that many reporters were hasty</a> in passing along a Georgia sheriff’s statement that the alleged murderer of eight people was having “a bad day.” And they have also tried to explain why members of the press care so much about whether or not President Joe Biden holds a press conference, despite the fact that the public, largely, is unconcerned.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am a scholar of press criticism. My research has shown that good-faith press criticism can actually strengthen the press and the public’s trust in it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Much of my research is based on the work of the press scholar James Carey, who in 1974 wrote an essay that called for a culture of press criticism to take root in the U.S. He observed that far more effort went into criticizing film and fiction and poetry than criticizing journalism – and yet most people consume much more news than poetry.</p> <p> </p> <p>Carey believed that critics who understand the processes of the press could help the news-consuming public understand better what they were reading or watching. At the same time, the critics and the public would hold the press to a higher standard.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2media_dave_winer-flickr.jpg" style="height:392px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Good and bad faith</strong></p> <p>The social upheaval of the second half of the 1960s led many reporters during the 1970s to conclude that the bland, detached tone that was required by news organizations’ so-called objectivity could not accurately portray the divisions in society.</p> <p> </p> <p>J. Anthony Lukas, a Pulitzer Prize–winning <em>New York Times</em> reporter, wrote a book about how the paper would not let him cover the Chicago 7 conspiracy trial as the political show trial he saw it to be. They insisted that he describe it “objectively,” using the same characterization of the trial that the prosecutors used, without regard for the perspectives of the defendants or Lukas’s own judgment.</p> <p> </p> <p>Younger reporters such as Lukas began to realize that the so-called objective news values and practices that their editors insisted on actually biased the press toward preserving the status quo, and people who were already in power.</p> <p> </p> <p>As the 1970s began, two major reporting events – the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and <em>The Washington Post’s</em> Watergate reporting – convinced many reporters that the government was not always working for the public good. These works of journalism exposed government and politicians acting against the public interest, and even illegally.</p> <p> </p> <p>In response, several regional journalism reviews cropped up. This movement culminated in the launch of a magazine called (MORE), which was based in New York City but aspired to a national audience.</p> <p> </p> <p>In my book about (MORE), I argue it is the publication that has come closest to achieving James Carey’s goal of press criticism addressed to nonspecialist readers.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the 1970s, (MORE) and other critics pushed publications to hire more women and nonwhite reporters, and pointed out racist, sexist and xenophobic language that seeped – consciously or not – into journalists’ stories. (MORE) even pushed <em>The New York Times</em> toward accountability, suggesting that it begin to run a daily corrections section – which it did, starting in 1972.</p> <p> </p> <p>But even (MORE) never really reached an audience beyond working journalists or people with an intense interest in how the press operates. Some later efforts, such as the early 2000s magazine <em>Brill’s Content</em>, also failed to find an audience that could support its work.</p> <p> </p> <p>All of these attempts could be described as good-faith criticism of the press, based on the premise that a strong independent press, responsive to the information needs of an engaged citizenry, is essential to the functioning of a democratic society. It functions as a kind of loyal opposition, pointing out the blind spots in the media and suggesting ways that it could do better.</p> <p> </p> <p>During the same period, bad-faith attacks on the press began to rise, led by a concerted effort among conservative critics. Along with the effort of creating a conservative counterbalance, they engaged in attempts to delegitimize it by painting it as irredeemably biased.</p> <p> </p> <p>These conservative attacks on the press were direct antecedents of more recent incidents, such as Tucker Carlson’s attacks and similar criticism from commentators such as Mark Levin and the conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media. This strain of bad-faith criticism is alive and well.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4media_cliff-creative_commons.jpg" style="height:600px; width:382px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Good-faith press criticism today</strong></p> <p>But the U.S. now seems to be entering what might be a potential golden age of press criticism.</p> <p> </p> <p>On any given day, you can read perceptive, incisive press criticism by Margaret Sullivan at <em>The Washington Post.</em> Sullivan previously served as an in-house critic – a public editor – for <em>The New York</em> <em>Times</em>. Some publications continue this public editor or ombudsman tradition, and the <em>Columbia Journalism Review </em>has appointed some individual watchdogs for publications that do not have them, including <em>The New York Times</em>, which eliminated the position in 2017.</p> <p> </p> <p>Columnist Ben Smith has written excellent reported columns about the media for <em>The New York Times</em> since 2020, occasionally turning his critical eye to the shortcomings of the newspaper itself. He has particularly focused on examinations of diversity, equity and inclusion at <em>The New York Times</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>The public radio show “On the Media” has broadcast since 1993. Each week, the program combines reporting and commentary on the press based on a deep understanding of how it works. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield help their listeners understand how news stories get made, and what the differences are between different news outlets.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the big national news outlets aren’t the only ones publishing this kind of work. Local papers are getting in on the act too.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, in February 2021, <em>The Bergen Record</em> in northern New Jersey launched a monthly column by Jim Beckerman, focusing on the media.</p> <p> </p> <p>“It will deal with a lot of things that consumers – and critics – of media beef about. Things like ‘objectivity,’ balance, inclusion, representation,” wrote Beckerman in an introduction to the new column. “It may help explain how newspapers and media do what they do – and why, for good or ill, they are what they are.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Today’s electronic media make this sort of good-faith criticism accessible to more people than ever before. But it will be sustainable only if it finds an engaged audience who believe that a robust independent press is essential to democracy, and that the press needs these critics to keep it accountable.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Kevin M. Lerner is an associate professor of journalism at Marist College.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This article was originally published in </strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/after-prolonged-period-of-press-bashing-a-more-constructive-form-of-media-criticism-is-now-flourishing-156449" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong>The Conversation</strong></a><strong>. It’s republished here with permission.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><a href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/36893d79-8239-4ec6-a5d2-f454d3995e19" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>DonkeyHote</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><a href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/72699291-878a-4ed4-852d-3367c8c15ee8" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Andrew Dallos</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/4981638182" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Cliff</em></a><em> (Flickr, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scriptingnews/3215212235" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Dave Winer</em></a><em> (Flickr, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/media-bashing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media bashing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/press-bashing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">press bashing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-times-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The New York Times</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/washington-post" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Washington Post</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fox-news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fox News</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tucker-carlson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tucker Carlson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/media-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the media</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/public-opinion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">public opinion</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/journalists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">journalists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/watching-news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">watching the news</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/biased-reporting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">biased reporting</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/independent-press" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">independent press</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/free-speech" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free speech</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kevin M. Lerner</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:16:14 +0000 tara 10257 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12012-after-prolonged-press-bashing-more-constructive-media-criticism-now-flourishes#comments In Defense of Student Commencement Protesters https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4008-defense-student-commencement-protesters <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 05/27/2014 - 12:43</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcollegegraduates%20%28Wiki%29.jpg?itok=pO8uyf7j"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcollegegraduates%20%28Wiki%29.jpg?itok=pO8uyf7j" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Has America entered a Bizarro world in which money equals speech but speech itself gets labeled intimidation?</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s not a far-fetched conclusion to draw in a political culture that has unleashed campaign spending and given it First Amendment protection while at the same time branding the supposed free speech of college students as bullying, <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/261515/the-lazy-moralism-of-liberal-college-politics">tyranny</a>, <a href="http://time.com/98367/caving-on-commencement-speakers-is-censorship-not-scholarship/">censorship</a>, and <a href="http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/editorials/20140516-growing-intolerance.ece">intolerance</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Anyone following American politics knows that the Roberts Supreme Court has made the act of spending money the equivalent of expressing one’s views. Through its decisions in the <em>Citizens United</em> and <em>McCutcheon</em> cases, the Court granted those with great wealth an unparalleled ability to shape our public debate and influence our elections simply by opening their wallets.</p> <p> </p> <p>One would think that a political system with such an overly broad view of speech would embrace the raucous and unkempt culture of real and actual speech that animates a democracy.</p> <p> </p> <p>But when some ragtag students organize petition campaigns to protest commencement speakers whose very values or actions contradict the spirit of the degree they are receiving, they are told to stifle their <a href="http://time.com/97722/smith-college-christine-lagarde/">tantrums</a> and, as the <em><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/13/the-oh-so-fragile-class-of-2014-needs-to-stfu-and-listen-to-some-new-ideas.html">Daily Beast</a></em> put it, “STFU.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The irony is that these students are being told to swallow their concerns, sit on their hands, and silence their protests all in the name of free speech. Perhaps if they had money, their voice would be welcome.</p> <p> </p> <p>The commencement tempest this year has taken place at three schools: Rutgers, Smith, and Haverford. At each, students simply have spoken out against the selection of speakers that were foisted on their graduation ceremonies by college administrators or wealthy trustees. And at each, the invited speakers themselves withdrew after students leveled their criticism.</p> <p> </p> <p>At Rutgers, it was for a simple but profound reason that 150 or so students objected to Condoleezza Rice as their commencement speaker (and her cool $35,000 fee): she lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, leading to an unjust war and unjustifiable carnage. Deceiving us into the War in Iraq remains the most consequential political scandal of their generation.</p> <p> </p> <p>The hundreds of Smith students who signed a <a href="http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/reconsider-the-smith-college-2014-commencement">petition</a> against International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde had no personal beef with her, but they wondered whether their graduation should be commemorated by a speaker whose institution, according to these students, perpetuates inequality and worsens poverty worldwide.</p> <p> </p> <p>About forty Haverford students and three professors asked whether former Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/new-emails-reveal-uc-berkeley-knew-of-baton-use_n_1291468.html">condoned excessive force and beatings against peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters</a>, was the best choice to embody their school’s nonviolent Quaker tradition.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s about it: students spoke out and took a stand.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/condoleezarice.jpg" style="height:625px; width:365px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>How ironic that the editorial writers and self-appointed thought leaders who often pillory today’s youth for apathy and narcissism are now criticizing them for challenging people or institutions that they see as perpetuating or excusing injustice.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Commencement bigots” is how a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/opinion/egan-the-commencement-bigots.html?_r=1">New York Times headline</a> describes them. The<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/college-activists-mock-academic-freedom-with-their-objections-to-commencement-speakers/2014/05/19/3bec63d2-df91-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html">Washington</a><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/college-activists-mock-academic-freedom-with-their-objections-to-commencement-speakers/2014/05/19/3bec63d2-df91-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html"> Post</a> accuses these students of “intolerance.” Haverford’s <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2014-05-18/news/49928236_1_birgeneau-haverford-students-haverford-college">replacement speaker used his own address</a> to label them “arrogant” and “immature.” To these critics, universities have become <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303851804579558390035335958">“havens of the closed minded”</a> where <a href="http://time.com/100095/lagarde-rice-ali-2014-college-commencement-speakers-dropout/">“young thought police [use] their powers to enforce left-wing purity.”</a></p> <p> </p> <p>They warn that students who don’t want to hear a particular speaker’s 20-minute commencement address will graduate onto a benighted island of insularity and ignorance – as if they hadn’t learned a thing or studied a different perspective in four years of college.</p> <p> </p> <p>How little these critics understand today’s young people – and today’s college campuses.</p> <p> </p> <p>America’s youth now have access – literally in the palm of their hands – to more viewpoints and information than any generation in history. Colleges routinely invite ideologically diverse speakers who generally attract a wide range of students and little controversy.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/rutgers.jpg" style="height:458px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Rutgers this year screened the Mitt Romney documentary, <em>Mitt</em>, and hosted talks by a leading conservative journalist and a former Republican senator. <a href="http://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2014/04/kpu-in-review-speakers-predominantly-male">My own university </a>sponsored Dick Cheney among other GOP headliners.</p> <p> </p> <p>But who speaks at commencement is different. This isn’t about a lecture or opinion. Graduation is a special and personal event for these young people. It’s a formal farewell to their collegiate home, a rite of passage as memorable to many as the day they get married or start their first job.</p> <p> </p> <p>From their perspective, they deserve a speaker who either exemplifies or at least doesn’t violate the values of their education and institution. They want inspiration, not vexation.</p> <p>Most schools actually get it, which is why – despite these momentary media brouhahas – there are so few commencement rumbles at the 2,500 four-year colleges and universities each year. We can hope that a Brigham Young or <a href="http://graduation.tamu.edu/transcripts.html">Texas A&amp;M</a> would invite Rep. Nancy Pelosi or the atheist Richard Dawkins to give a lecture on campus, but don’t expect to see them at graduation anytime soon.</p> <p> </p> <p>To voice an opinion on whom to invite isn’t censorship or intimidation. It’s simply free speech. Because administrators or trustees invite someone doesn’t mean students should blindly accept it. As long as these students are making informed arguments against the proposed speaker, not speaking up would have been the real insult to their education.</p> <p>It’s then up to the speaker to ignore them, engage them, or withdraw. Public life is not friction free, no one is above criticism, and no one is entitled to give a commencement speech.</p> <p> </p> <p>When a handful of billionaires pour their riches into politics to sway elections and get their way, that’s free speech in America. But when a bunch of earnest students petition or rally against a speaker for their own graduation, that’s bullying and censorship.</p> <p>As Lewis Carroll once said, “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.” </p> <p> </p> <p><em>From Punditwire.com. This article was also published in the</em> <em><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonard-steinhorn/in-defense-of-student-commencement-speech_b_5355564.html" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a>.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>A former speechwriter and strategist for causes, candidates, and members of Congress,</em> <em><a href="http://punditwire.com/contributors/leonard-steinhorn/" target="_blank">Leonard Steinhorn</a></em> <em>has written on American politics and culture for major print and online publications, and is currently a professor of communication at American University.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/commencement-speakers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">commencement speakers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/condoleeza-rice" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">condoleeza rice</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rutgers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rutgers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smith-college" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">smith college</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/graduation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">graduation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-graduates" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college graduates</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/protests" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">protests</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-protests" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student protests</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/free-speech" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free speech</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/censorshipm-universities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">censorshipm universities</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Leonard Steinhorn</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 27 May 2014 16:43:36 +0000 tara 4751 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4008-defense-student-commencement-protesters#comments Political Correctness Gone Amok https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3950-political-correctness-gone-amok <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 05/01/2014 - 10:10</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1duckdynasty.jpg?itok=OA9QcagX"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1duckdynasty.jpg?itok=OA9QcagX" width="480" height="240" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <div> <p>Have we reached a point where we can’t say anything to anybody—privately or publicly—without checking to see if the PC police are nearby?</p> <p> </p> <p>A clear majority (79 percent) thinks so, according to a recent <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/october_2011/79_see_political_correctness_as_serious_problem_in_america">Rasmussen</a><u> Reports</u> survey.</p> <p> </p> <p>The subject of political correctness burst into the news late last year when A&amp;E suspended Phil Robertson, the star of one of cable T.V.’s biggest hits, “Duck Dynasty,” from appearing on the show following his comments about gay people in a <em>GQ</em> interview.</p> <p> </p> <p>Responding to a question about what behaviors he believes are sinful, Robertson cited the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality.</p> <p> </p> <p>The response to A&amp;E’s action was fast and furious. Media pundits, including some from the right and left, argued that A&amp;E was punishing Robertson for his constitutionally protected religious views – albeit views that were crudely expressed.</p> <p> </p> <p>A&amp;E was inundated by hundreds-of-thousands of emails and calls from “Duck Dynasty” fans sharply critical of the network.</p> <p> </p> <p>A spokesperson for GLAAD, the LGBT advocacy group that led the charge to get Robertson suspended, said he never before received so many livid calls and social media posts.</p> <p> </p> <p>A&amp;E was forced to back down a week later  -- but did so in what can only described as a <u>P.C. </u><a href="http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/phil-robertson-to-return-to-duck-dynasty-in-2014-1201003922/">correct</a> manner.</p> <p> </p> <p>What exactly constitutes politically incorrect speech?</p> <p> </p> <p>Pinning down what politically incorrect means is a little like what former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stevens said about defining pornography…”I know it when I see it.”</p> <p> </p> <p>According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, political correctness means, “conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Political correctness first took over America’s institutions of higher learning in the 1970s – then quickly captured the media and entertainment industries.</p> <p> </p> <p>Jobs can be lost, careers destroyed, reputations sullied for merely saying what the P.C. police deem unacceptable.</p> <p> </p> <p>The muzzle that political correctness has become doesn’t just affect those who are voicing sincere religious beliefs either.</p> <p> </p> <p>It has come to hinder what we say about almost everything – politics, race, sexual orientation, body image, etc.</p> <p> </p> <p>In many circles, particularly public ones, people are criticized for merely saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays,” and cities have been forced to take down religious Christmas displays such as crèches.</p> <p> </p> <p>Freedom of expression has taken a back seat to the fear of offending – even if those being offended are very few in number.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1pcarticle.jpg" style="height:435px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While the original goals of P.C. were beneficial in that they encouraged sensitivity to the views and feelings of others, the longer-term result has been to stifle important conversations about topics like race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.</p> <p> </p> <p>“These days everyone is so afraid of being called “sexist,” “racist,” or “anti-Semitic” or some other career-killing label, that we all tiptoe carefully around diversity issues, and avoid them altogether if we possible can,” says <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bj-gallagher/the-problem-political-correctness_b_2746663.html">BJ Gallagher</a>, co-author of the bestselling diversity classic <em>A Peacock in the Land of Pilgrims</em>.<br />  </p> <p>Gallagher goes on to say that if we are forced to constantly self-sensor any conversation about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or physical ability, then we are doomed to perpetuate the very barriers we say we want to overcome.</p> <p> </p> <p>If somebody of Gallagher’s ilk believes we may have gone too far, clearly it’s time to rethink how we apply political correctness to what is considered “acceptable” speech and behavior in both our private and public spheres.</p> </div> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>And political correctness is hardly in vogue only in the U.S. as some of the following examples attest to. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Political Correctness’ Biggest Hits</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/outrageous-remarks-by-lululemon-founder-chip-wilson-2013-12">Lulueman’s founder</a> created a commotion when he said the company’s yoga pants  “don’t work for some women’s bodies,” and was forced to back down on his statement.</p> <p> </p> <p>A student at Sonoma State University was ordered to take off a cross that she was wearing because someone “<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/03/student-ordered-to-remove-cross-necklace-at-sonoma-state-university/">could be offended</a>.“</p> <p> </p> <p>A teacher in New Jersey <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/toddstarnes/2013/06/19/school-calls-cops-on-gideons-distributing-bibles-n1622806">was fired</a> for giving his own Bible to a student who did not own one.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2pcarticle.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Several local councils have banned terms using the word 'man' as a prefix or suffix because they aren’t <a href="http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/topic/politically-correct/">politically correct</a>. 'Manhole' is now referred to as a 'utility' or 'maintenance' hole. </p> <p> </p> <p>Baba black sheep has been changed to baba rainbow sheep in some schools, in case the nursery rhythm could be deemed racist.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/political-correctness-gone-mad/">The UN has ordered</a> Canada, a country that ranks among the world’s most inclusive and least prejudiced, to defend itself for the use of the term ‘visible minority’ in government documents.</p> <p> </p> <p>A school in Seattle renamed its Easter eggs 'spring spheres' to avoid causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter.</p> <p> </p> <p>A UK recruiter was stunned when her job advertisement for 'reliable' and 'hard-working' applicants was rejected by the job center since it could be offensive to unreliable and lazy people.</p> <p> </p> <p>The European Parliament introduced proposals to outlaw titles stating marital status such as 'Miss' and 'Mrs' so as not to cause offense.</p> <p> </p> <p>A UK council has banned the term 'brainstorming' – and replaced it with 'thought showers', as local lawmakers thought the term could offend epileptics.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Mark Goebel is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pc" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pc</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politial-correctness" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politial correctness</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politically-correct" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politically correct</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/duck-dynasty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">duck dynasty</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/religion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">religion</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sexuality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sexuality</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rasmussen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rasmussen</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pc-police" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pc police</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/free-speech" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">free speech</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mark Goebel</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 01 May 2014 14:10:54 +0000 tara 4653 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3950-political-correctness-gone-amok#comments