I normally don’t link to People magazine

Last updated on: August 23, 2016 at 3:47 pm by Dave Griffey

I normally don’t link to People magazine 2016-08-23T10:01:20-04:00 Dave Griffey

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IMHO, People is to journalism what Twilight is to literature. But when you’re trying to find mainstream coverage of a story about the possible dark side of our modern sex culture, sometimes you have to compromise a little. The media tends to guard rather jealously the idea that our modern sexual norms are all happy and wonderful and never the cause of problems or harm.

I’ve often wondered if that’s why it took the MSM so long to jump on the whole human trafficking problem. I’ve known of the human trafficking issue for decades. Churches were talking about it when I first walked into the faith in the early 90s. Even today, the press doesn’t give it the same emphasis you’d think it would, even if it has finally started to cover the crisis. And yet, since the majority reason for the modern slave trade is the international sex industry, I wonder if that’s the reason. Makes me wonder. Don’t think I don’t.

Same with other issues. STDs, AIDS, the emotional and psychological problems that can accompany the whole sex and drugs culture, the possible burden on society, healthcare costs: these things seldom find there way into stories where the MSM actually suggests ‘this is bad and maybe it’s because of that sex norms we endorse today.’

So when the story of Elizabeth Smart talking about her captor’s addiction to pornography made the religious rounds, I did what I usually do. I went to find MSM versions of the story. Not because I don’t trust religious publications. I just know the first defense of ideologists is to attack any publication as biased if it is founded on beliefs contrary to those of the ideologist. Finding a similar NYT or CNN version eliminates that first objection.

But alas, I couldn’t find it. There might be some stories out there, but the best I could come up with was some FOX affiliates (no good), and a couple conservative or religious publications. It wasn’t until I stumbled across this People article that I found a story headline emphasizing the link between her captor’s porn addiction and her increased sufferings.

Not that the media never, ever talks about such things. Sure they do. In the media’s fashion. That is, if it isn’t something the media wants to dwell on, if it must do so at all, it will mention it, run a story, publish it, and then move on. It won’t be like the stories the media wants to talk about, say the Transgender bathroom issue or the cases of unarmed black men killed by police. Those will enjoy days and weeks and months – sometimes even years – of headlines, debates, discussion, analysis, specials, all centered around finding the causes and solutions, drawing links towards what to blame, and seeking resolution for the problems at hand.

In the case of anything to do with the modern sex codes, however, don’t expect the same. No matter how many millions in the world are bought and sold as slaves to sustain it, no matter how many tens of millions suffer or die, no matter what the possible negative impact on society as a whole, if you can get a brief story on an internet venue tucked nicely behind the fourth page of the grocery ads, you’ll be doing good.

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