Watching some of the clips in the Oprah special on sexism in media really highlighted some of the problems that go into talk news shows. The segment on political news stations making comments on females in the political spectrum presented some really disgusting and unbelievable sound bites about their attractiveness and other crude, rude, or false information meant to persuade audiences. While I think this type of 'journalism' should be abolished and never shown on television, I also think that sexism is not the only way in which these media outlets betray the values they are meant to uphold. Commentators such as Rush Limbaugh or Chris Matthews will do whatever it takes to attract viewers, failing to recognize the detrimental effect this is having on the way our country relates to its political system. They attack the gender of women for being in the minority of the political spotlight, but they also attack anything else that would lead to the trivialization of a human being and candidate for public office. Whether making a snide comment about someone's race, religion, gender, family, or physical attractiveness, this entire industry thrives off of slander and defining individuals by aspects of their person other than character or decision-making. I believe that there is definitely a case to be made about the perceptions in media and striving to be considered on equal ground regardless of sex or race or any other attribute, but separating these causes and trying to take down the powers that be as opposed to erecting competing powers that better portray the value of equality seems off to me.
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