#7 - EXPLOITING A NEWS STORY

 Exploiting Tragedies in the Main Media

    By definition, exploiting means “to make full use of and derive benefit from”. Exploitation can happen in many different ways and in many different situations. It is not uncommon to now see exploitation take place all over society, especially in American media. Now, especially following an extremely chaotic and stressful election year, it seems like politics can often take the forefront of the media. Sometimes, these political opinions and ideologies end up gaining more coverage than serious issues and tragedies taking place around the country. 

    While doing research for this topic, I actually found a rather recent example of a political figure exploiting a tragedy for their own benefit. On Monday, March 22, 2021, a mass shooting took place in Boulder, Colorado in a grocery store. In this horrible situation, 10 people were shot dead by one man and a suspect was arrested for the crime. Reading and hearing about this tragedy, there is no question in my mind at how terrible it is and my heart immediately goes to the families of the victims and the people who witnessed the event. However, it seems that not all people think that way. 

    United States Representative Lauren Boebert drew some criticism after sending out a fundraising email. In the email, Boebert asked her supporters for donations to keep “radical liberals” from taking guns away from American citizens. She stated, “I will fight this new attack on our sacred rights with everything I have”. The vocalizing of her opinion on defending the Second Amendment is not rare for Boebert, but that still does not excuse her from making a poorly timed statement on a sensitive subject. Another statement from Lauren said, “They want to defund our police. Then they want to take our guns. What do we think comes next? We cannot lose this fight.” Interestingly, an hour before sending the email, Boebert tweeted, “As we continue to hear the news coming out of Boulder. I'm praying for the police, first responders, and those affected by this tragedy. May God be with us as we make sense of this senseless violence, and may we unify and not divide during this time.”

    Needless to say, people were not pleased at all with her choice of words. Multiple tweets and articles stated their disagreement with Boebert’s message and with the timing of it. Personally, I think there is a time and place to have a conversation about gun control. If that is something Lauren is passionate about and a topic that she wants to make part of her platform, then that is completely up to her. I do not agree with her sending that type of email out immediately after such a tragic event took place. This is a perfect example of someone in the media, a politician in this case, taking a tragic event like a mass shooting and using it to push their agenda. It is sad that this has become so common to see in our media and, at this rate, it will be interesting to see if there will be any kind of concrete consequences put in place for these types of situations.


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