Shame

Back in January, we decided to stop providing the local Southern Nevada "newspaper" the attention it clearly does not deserve. When was the last time the "newspaper" had a good reputation for actually reporting the news? So why treat it as such?

We've been doing our part here to actually pay attention to the real news. Yet yesterday, the "newspaper" published an editorial so heinous and disgusting that we can't let it get away with this. And fortunately for us, Sin City Siren managed to catch the racism and sexism on display yesterday.

I’m also irritated that in both of these op-eds, Sherm gives what he thinks is a clever indictment on Assemblywoman Lucy Flores’ testimony about having an abortion. He wonders allowed at whether or not Sen. Ruben Kihuen’s characterization of Flores’ testimony as courageous is actually courageous. You know why Lucy is courageous? She didn’t retract the truth about her life after she faced threats of violence just for sharing it. That is the culture we live in. You don’t like abortion —then you can just threaten and bully a person into silence. But I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you Sherm?

And, Sherm, for all your back-handed compliments to teen moms, do you support any programs or services that actually help teen mothers, who face a higher rate of poverty and less opportunities in the work force due to a higher rate of dropping out of school? (Only about 50 percent of teen mothers graduate from high, according to the CDC.) Where is your support for those brave teen moms, Sherm? Where’s your op-ed extolling their courageous decision to have their babies? And furthermore, where’s your reality check that growing up the child of teen mom isn’t all its cracked up to be? I should know. But I guess there’s no room in your world-view for the reality that, yes, white teens have babies, too. [...]

And by the way, comprehensive sex education has been proven more effective than abstinence-only programs and is endorsed by a large number of agencies that work to better the lives of children including the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Society for Adolescent Medicine and the American College Health Association.

So the "newspaper" struck (out) yet again. Is anyone truly surprised? Here's the short response to this latest "newspaper" turdblossom.



And here's the longer answer: Clearly, the "newspaper" publisher/former editor doesn't know what's in AB 230, why comprehensive sex education matters, and who's ultimately hurt by the status quo (hint: everyone). And on top of that, he decided to engage in the time (dis)honored tradition of "slut-shaming". He must have learned nothing from Rush Limbaugh's EPIC FAIL in this department.



It's a shame that we've become accustomed to seeing this kind of garbage in the state's largest "newspaper". It's a shame that Nevada women continue to suffer this kind of degradation. And it's truly a shame that many in the media implicitly and/or explicitly condone what should be shameful behavior.

Oh, and it's not as if "slut-shaming" works in reducing teen pregancies and/or preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections. If anything, the opposite may actually be true. Threatening young women won't stop the above from happening. Knowledge, on the other hand, will. After all, knowledge is power.

So we should know better. And the powers that be at the "newspaper" should have known better. What a shame.