Happened just now, here at work.
Just heard of the school shooting in Florida. Praying for all those affected. Still mad as hell at Republicans who won't do shit about this. The NRA is a domestic terrorist organization. Rinse and repeat.
I got wind of this shooting from the people on the other side of the cube from me. I have heard them constantly, but I have never spoken to them because I am working under a different department than the one I am physically situated in. I've spoken to one person around this area. That's it.
Anyway, it appears that two people were getting ready to leave for the day. (So soon? These two must work early.) So I hear one of them saying that they caught the shooter, something I had already seen on my Twitter feed. I didn't follow the subsequent track of conversation between those two, but they started talking about the reporters who, according to her, ask dumb questions. "It's embarrassing!" she said. I'm paraphrasing, and briefly at that, but her point is she thinks the media sucks.
The other woman then jumps to, of all things, Shaun White. Last (Tuesday) night he pulled out a gold medal in the halfpipe. Thrilling. He's the GOAT. He also settled out of court with the drummer of his band who accused him of sexually harassing her. Both things appear to have happened. And that has created an awkward situation for White's post-competition press conference where the media, not wanting to be accused of avoiding the elephant in the room, asked him about the allegations and the settlement. It didn't go so well, and so he has apologized for his words.
Now, if I were a journalist, I honestly don't know if I would bring it up in a situation like this. But this nameless and faceless co-worker is bleepin' adamant about this. Paraphrasing again: "He just won the gold medal, and the reporters just started asking him questions about this stuff??? I mean, it's like, this is not the time! You're just making things awkward of everyone!"
Well shit, we don't want that, do we?
First of all, White is a public figure. He knows what he signed up for, he knows the questions will be coming. Second of all, once The Media gets done with their questions, he's still going to bask in the glory of his third gold medal in his fourth Winter Olympics. He'll get all the accolades -- from people who can parse his physical achievements from his sexual predation and people like this co-worker who, I'm guessing, doesn't really care about those accusations because, fuck, IT'S SHAUN WHITE!!!
And finally, this ignorant comment shows just how much lazy disdain people have for journalists, and for journalism. They are doing their job -- covering all the facets of a public figure who just completed a unique accomplishment. Not answering potentially thorny questions just because it'd be a buzzkill means they wouldn't be doing their job (and again, I have to admit that I probably would shirk away from the moment). This person on the other side said those questions are awkward because she feels they are awkward. And no right-thinking person should give a shit about that.
I don't think I can go as far to say that these two women are Trump voters. But they sure do paint The Media with a broad brush. They have made their minds up about journalists, yessirree, and they see them as nothing but stupid people getting in the way. #IStandWithTheMedia, but sure as hell these two don't. Ick.
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