[Teebs]

Anyone else catch word about a news station out of Miami cyber-bullying and attacking cosplayers? They posted a photo album on their facebook wall that had pictures of cosplayers at the Star Wars convention that took place there I believe it was this past weekend and put degrading and awful captions upon them. The pictures have been removed, but then they came out with the most sarcastic apology ever. Now they are being targeted by groups and cosplayers all over the country. What are your thoughts upon all this?

BTW, the station is WPLG 10 out of Miami, here's their Facebook page.

[Rori]

If the screencap here is any indicator, that series of captions was entirely inappropriate.

I'm glad they were taken down.

I hate seeing any kind of inconsiderate remarks like that towards cosplayers. Someone put effort into making that. And someone is most certainly putting effort into wearing and posing in it. Whether or not you like the way it looks is one thing. But making hateful comments and then publicizing those comments behind someone's back is something completely different. Whoever it was at the station that allowed that to happen should be ashamed of themself (or themselves).

This post has been edited by Rori: 05 September 2012 - 06:51 PM

[TheStrongJaeger]

On the one hand yes it was mean and possibly inappropriate.

On the other hand I adamantly believe in free speech, even if it is criticizing something I enjoy. At the end of the day I'd still rather that they have the right to say mean things than to have that taken away. Since who knows when someone will try and take away my right to say something I want.

Plus it's the internet, if you don't like people making fun of everything this might not be the right place for you.

[NinjaJedi007]

The internet sure is a terrible place. Haters can hate all they want. I'm sure what they do with their time is so much better than what anyone else does.

[JujuFox]

Thanks for posting about this!

Not only did they make fun of Star Wars cosplayers, they did this to the 501st Legion. Check out the Wired article for more info.

[Agatha]

That's really unprofessional.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't have the right to an opinion, but I think that if someone's going to do that it belongs on a personal webpage, not there.

What I think looks the worst is not that no one working there thought that this wrong, but that after getting called out on it they're acting like middle-schoolers. Reading some other links, it looks like they haven't taken the slideshow down, just reposted it with a different URL, and they're now making passive-aggressive facebook comments. Honestly, why not be a grown-up, say you made a mistake, and then apologize with something that at least sounds like it's sincere? It's just making them look worse. Their PR people have got to be some kind of incompetent, because this could really turn into a public-relations headache, what with cyber-bullying being a hot topic of discussion and them making fun of an organization that does this for charity.

Is this what passes for journalism nowadays?

[Teebs]

It unfortunately is what a lot goes through journalism nowadays... it's become almost solely opinion oriented. Their "apology" I think is what really lit the fuse for everyone.

The journalist involved either is too cowardly to come out with an apology and fess up for his mistake, or the station is holding him back from doing so. Coming from personal experience and working in the same field, the station is trying to protect it's employee from basically being jumped, mauled, flogged, etc. and protecting his or her identity. That's almost standard procedure in whatever larger company you work for.

If I had to think of something for their actions, they were either not thinking or they expected a different reaction than the one they got. Regardless, it would have been taken no different no matter their intention.

[-JUNK-]

TheStrongJaeger, on 05 September 2012 - 07:00 PM, said:

On the one hand yes it was mean and possibly inappropriate.

On the other hand I adamantly believe in free speech, even if it is criticizing something I enjoy. At the end of the day I'd still rather that they have the right to say mean things than to have that taken away. Since who knows when someone will try and take away my right to say something I want.

Plus it's the internet, if you don't like people making fun of everything this might not be the right place for you.

THAT^

NinjaJedi007, on 05 September 2012 - 07:25 PM, said:

The internet sure is a terrible place. Haters can hate all they want. I'm sure what they do with their time is so much better than what anyone else does.

AND THAT^

Im no mean person, maybe just a crude way of humor. But oh well, Im sure we all have been picked on in some point of our lives.
But yes its the internet if someones going to get butt hurt about it like the TheStrongJaeger said, maybe its just not the place for you.

This post has been edited by -JUNK-: 05 September 2012 - 11:58 PM

[CrimsonAnime]

I went to the Facebook page linked in the first post and went back all the way to Aug 25 but didn't see any mention if this, not even the apology. Can someone Linn me to that or to a news article that details the type of this that were said.

I would really like to comment on this issue but I like to have all the facts first so I can make my own conclusions.

[gomez46356]

k i get the humor behind all this but i do believe its wrong that a news agency would be behind this, *sigh* I mean people here are starting to look at us with as much distaste as they do over in japan, and to think our parents , when they were kids they wore superman capes and went to star trek conventions, but now people of that age wanna look down on us ! makes no sense.

[JujuFox]

I've been following the whole thing since I saw this thread.

This article explains it all: http://www.examiner....ntion-costumers

Here is the final apology from the original author: http://www.local10.c...oz/-/index.html

It took the head of the 501st, their PR guy, and three "cease fires" for this issue to be resolved.

[YoungBirdcall]

TheStrongJaeger, on 05 September 2012 - 07:00 PM, said:

On the one hand yes it was mean and possibly inappropriate.

On the other hand I adamantly believe in free speech, even if it is criticizing something I enjoy. At the end of the day I'd still rather that they have the right to say mean things than to have that taken away. Since who knows when someone will try and take away my right to say something I want.

Plus it's the internet, if you don't like people making fun of everything this might not be the right place for you.

This.

NinjaJedi007, on 05 September 2012 - 07:25 PM, said:

The internet sure is a terrible place. Haters can hate all they want. I'm sure what they do with their time is so much better than what anyone else does.

Also, this.

[CrimsonAnime]

Thank you for sharing. Now that I was able to see some of the photos and captions and read some of the articles, I can make an opinion.

I think that the news person who decided to produce this, did not think very well about who he was representing nor what exactly he was saying. Perhaps he thought "oh well people make these same jokes in movies and television all the time, why can't i?" Perhaps he thought "I'm not really being mean, just funny". Perhaps her truly never thought at all and just acted.

Unfortunately, we will never really know (people are always regretful when actions come across as negative) and all we can look at is that he was nice enough to take it down and nice enough to put up a sincere apology.


And on a different note - After having scrolled through the local10's facebook page....I realized that they are always just a bit rude and sarcastic...the apology posted on their page is in the same form as everything else that they posted...

Spoiler

but what else can you expect from a red state

[sentinel28a]

What was with that dig at the end there, Crimson? Everything is now political? As I recall, the last time something like this happened it was at that wonderful red-as-blood state known as California. Give it a rest.

Yes, these people have the right to post their views. Cosplayers also have the right to speak up and tell them to go to hell. If someone's making fun of me, I'm going to say something...and it won't be friendly. They have the right to make fun of me. I have the right to call them extremely nasty words in three languages.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"Four if I try hard"

[Gwydion]

sentinel28a, on 07 September 2012 - 10:34 PM, said:

What was with that dig at the end there, Crimson? Everything is now political? As I recall, the last time something like this happened it was at that wonderful red-as-blood state known as California. Give it a rest.

Yes, these people have the right to post their views. Cosplayers also have the right to speak up and tell them to go to hell. If someone's making fun of me, I'm going to say something...and it won't be friendly. They have the right to make fun of me. I have the right to call them extremely nasty words in three languages.

Ben Da Mad Irishman
"Four if I try hard"

Ditto all of this.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most about the whole thing was that it was from a news station's page. I expect this from your random internet troll, but is this what journalism has come to? So unprofessional!

[IshokuOsero]

Gwydion, on 07 September 2012 - 11:57 PM, said:

Ditto all of this.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most about the whole thing was that it was from a news station's page. I expect this from your random internet troll, but is this what journalism has come to? So unprofessional!

That's what got me about it too. It's one thing when you're just a person on the internet posting to all your friends and laughing, but it's an entirely separate thing when you're the face of something much more professional and you're doing that. And then the apology isn't really an apology at all. After looking around more about that incident, though, it seems like they've had similar things in the past. A lot of people apparently weren't surprised at all that the news station was at it again.

[Kii]

NinjaJedi007, on 05 September 2012 - 07:25 PM, said:

The internet sure is a terrible place. Haters can hate all they want. I'm sure what they do with their time is so much better than what anyone else does.

Lol'd.

[Snow_Storm]

I'm simply going to ignore it and not comment on it. They are obviously doing this for attention and they want it. Instead of raging and getting mad, just ignore it and move on if it wasn't you in the picture.

Plus, look on the bright side: Traditional news media is a dying breed.