In perhaps the most misguided of student journalism exercises, Rutgers University’s The Daily Targum is attacking the media. Who are they, Hillary Clinton? Tyler Clementi’s death, you see, was not supposed to be a way for celebrities and big business to turn anti-gay bullying into some big thing worth complaining about.
Reads the editorial the newspaper will come to regret:
The death of University student Tyler Clementi might have been properly mourned if it were not for the massive rallies and aggressive news coverage that altered the nature of the situation. The truth is that an 18-year-old boy killed himself – he was a student just like the rest of us, someone just trying to receive an education. Yet people’s relentless agendas took his death and turned it into a cause based on false pretenses.
[…] It is disappointing that everyone from news to celebrities picked up the story. Actress Brittany Snow and actor Neil Patrick-Harris are just two of the many celebrities belittling Clementi’s death – forcing his remembrance into a cause rather than a proper mourning.
We did not know Tyler. It was barely three weeks into his first year at the University, and most of his neighbors in his residence hall barely knew him. Turning his death into a push for gay rights is a fallacy. Homosexuality is not the only reason for which people kill themselves. In this case, it might have pushed Clementi over the edge, but the fact that he was gay should by no means turn his death into a march for safe spaces. These groups want to be heard. They want the attention. They want their agendas to shine in the limelight.
Is Gay Inc. often guilty of turning events into opportunities to drum up donations? Yep! But that’s not what happened with Tyler’s death. Instead we saw an immediate outpouring of support, from civilians and celebrities alike, who wanted to use Tyler’s death to prevent more unnecessary harm. That’s something admirable. And the newspaper’s disbelief over “turning his death into a push for gay rights” misses the entire point of LGBT bullying.
It’s not about who people fuck. It’s about acceptance and respect for everyone.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Surprisingly missing from the Targum‘s editorial: Any mention of Dharun Ravi or Molly Wei, the ones responsible for tormenting a classmate. Let no blame fall on them.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I really feel like getting all bully like on the douchebag author of that article
Sean
We should comment-rape them.
http://www.dailytargum.com/opinions/media-exploits-university-tragedy-1.2354299
meego
The article was written by a very obviously ignorant and un-educated person. And boy, for a University claiming to be all about diversity and acceptance and so on, it sure doesn’t seem like it! The author is just one person so I hope not too many share his vision of things.
Sean
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: Violence isn’t the answer. Bitchy anonymous comments is.
FYI
What a bunch of fools on the student newspaper, Rutgers University’s The Daily Targum (aka The Daily Tantrum). According to their twisted logic, then every time a poor black person was hanged from a Cyprus tree in a Southern swamp in the 1960s, then public figures and civil rights groups who brought attention to the horror of that injustice, as well as publicly denouncing the institutionalized bigotry which inflames violence and promotes despair, were just exploiting the situation “for their own agendas”.
If this is an example of what Rutgers journalism department churns out, then there should be a special student Pulitzer Prize for mental defectives and tea-baggery imbecilism.
meego
@Sean: Very tempting but, judging from the comments already there, it’s already being done.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Sean: Maybe sometimes I feel like both are the answer. That article was as PC an effort the author could possibly make to say to that no one had any business or right to use Tyler’s death as a call for the end of Gay bashing which can occur thru physical means, verbal means, and now cyber means. The genesis of all is a hatred of all things and people Gay.
I can 100% guarantee if Tyler was a member of any other minority but Gay and the author wrote “These groups want to be heard. They want the attention. They want their agendas to shine in the limelight.” their article never would have left the inbox of the editor…………
the crustybastard
[img]http://cdn.crooksandliars.com/files/movieimages/2009/05/8091.jpg?key=1241152382[/img]
Qjersey
Middle class NJ brats speak.
Geoff M
@the crustybastard: Things never seem to change with these sorts of people do they.
Cam
Funny, they seem to leave out the part where he was harrassed solely because he was gay.
Is this the quality of critical thinking that is coming out of Rutgers these days?!
James Davis
FYI today at 3pm Dan Savage will be joining Openly gay news anchor Thomas Roberts on NBC to discuss this editorial.
Eric Thor
Gay Rutgers Student here. I somewhat disagree with the paper, but there was one rally the night of the news of his death in which this professor herded a bunch of shell shocked students out of a GSA meeting gave them papers with protest slogans, and staged a die-in despite the knowledge that there was a vigil be planned in a couple of days.
Cam
@Eric Thor:
Oh…those poor shell shocked students. Give me a break, these are young adults none of whome probably knew Tyler personally as he had only been at the school for 3 weeks. SO to pretend that they were unaware of what they were doing and just passivly went along sound a bit silly.
Jon
I’m a Rutgers student, and recent issues of our newspaper have all dealt with the unfortunate loss of Tyler Clementi. People wrote letters and articles expressing their grief and encouraged the student body to treat each other with respect and combat homophobia.
This one article is just that- ONE article among many beautifully written pieces. And of course this is the article that gets the recognition on the internet.
AdonisOfFire
Who wrote that shit? let’s start with the angry letters!
Cam
@Jon:
Yes John, because this wasn’t a letter to the editor, this was an EDITORIAL, which means that this is the Opinion of the paper itself.
Once again I have to ask, is this the quality of critical thinking that is coming out of Rutgers today!?
Daez
You don’t like what was said because you don’t agree with it. The truth is, a kid that killed himself because he didn’t want the whole world to know that he was gay is now being held up as a gay kid to the whole world.
You kind of have to wonder what he would have wanted? I think the fact that he decided to kill himself rather than come out gives a pretty clear inclination that he didn’t want to be the poster boy for the “end gay bullying” movement.
B
No. 17 · Cam wrote, “@Jon: Yes John, because this wasn’t a letter to the editor, this was an EDITORIAL, which means that this is the Opinion of the paper itself.”
Actually it is the opinion of the person who wrote the editorial, and college newspapers are staffed by students who sign up for an extracurricular activity, so the editorial was really written by a student in his/her spare time. It’s only a student paper, so don’t expect a perfect job at QA.
wompman
Yes, bad gay people, bad gay celebrities for telling young people that life is worth living. Clearly the heinous asshole whoe wrote this vile piece of shit doesn’t want any young gay person to know that.
The “agenda” is looking out for our own to prevent future Tylers from allowing gay-bashing assholes like the 2 who drove him to his death (and the writer of this article) from harming themselves. It has been very clear to any gay person what most straight people think of us, and that many are secretly and not-so-secretly taking delight in the death of young gay people, so it is up to US to do something about it. And whoever wrote this idiotic excuse for an editorial can go fuck him or herself.
kalifani6
@FYI: “If this is an example of what Rutgers journalism department churns out, then there should be a special student Pulitzer Prize for mental defectives and tea-baggery imbecilism.”
Rutgers get’s the Darwin Award on all fronts regarding the handling of this case and the aftermath thereof.
That faculty must be skating by on it’s name—which is now for shit.
kalifani6
@wompman: Two bucks this curious fellow was in on the viewing party.
Bill Courson
I want to draw attention to a petition that I drafted this morning and which I feel to be quite important and timely, and which I would like to ask you to sign: “A Petition for the Termination of the Daily Targum’s Editorial Staff” which can be viewed and signed online at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/targumeditorial/
I really think this is an important cause, and I’d like to encourage you to add your signatures, too, and to circulate it to frends who you think would be interested.