by Jose A. Colon Rivera

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 28, 2010

The term "political correctness" brings to mind many contradictory ideas. Many of us would not, consciously, offend another human being; and as such, go to extremes to attempt to curtail our speech, and mannerisms, so as to not offend the sensibilities of others. As a child, my parents told me to be considerate of others, and to this day, I still attempt to make others feel well around me. But, how is society affected as a whole, by the current trend to adapt political correctness in media?

Not so long ago, sports caster and commentator, Don Imus, lost his job over stupid comments, which people was quick to point out, and he quickly apologized for his lack of good judgment. A female commentator was made to apologize over her comments including the word "lynching" and Tiger Woods in the same sentence. Bill O'Reilly was also chastised by Star Jones over some stupid remark about Michelle Obama.

It is easy to see that people do make mistakes, and sometimes, their tongue is faster than their brains when they talk. This is especially true in media.

The real problem comes when people that enjoy being in the spotlight, take these mistakes, and run with them, not allowing the offender the opportunity to apologize and make amends, and in their quest for glory, call for those people to be fired.

We have another problem when considering political correctness. I have listened to the news reporting about a criminal who just killed someone, and describing him as a "male, wearing jeans". If they wanted to really warn the population, they could have done a better job by pointing out hair color, possible ethnicity, race, approximate height and body type.

The media is quick to point out mistakes, and controversy regarding any Christian faith churches or clergy. But they are cautious to the point of being vague in describing how many of the suspicious arrests made over the past few years, which could be linked to terrorists either in training or on their way to perpetrate a crime, are related to Muslims.

The media also neglected to appropriately cover the foot washing basins placed in a university in the United States for practicing Muslims, while they cover any incident where someone sues a school or university because a teacher has a Bible in his or her desk. They also neglected to cover the Michigan grade school where the students are "encouraged" (they are actually led to the gym everyday by their teachers) for "Muslim Studies". This school receives tax money for their operation, and if a regular school would ask their students to attend "Bible Studies" the ACLU would sue them in an instant, with the consequent press coverage.

Political correctness is needed in our society, and specially in our media; however, common sense should temper political correctness, and that is where some of our media fails.

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