Media unfair to college students! Wait-- maybe not...

[Texrat]

Student leader charged with DUI after defending party (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/16/student.charged.ap/index.html)


BLOOMSBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Bloomsburg University's student government president was charged with drunken driving just weeks after saying the media has unfairly portrayed students as irresponsible.

Christopher Bevan, 21, was pulled over last weekend after a campus police officer said he saw the student driving more than 50 mph in a 15-mph zone.
A breath test showed Bevan's blood-alcohol level was .147 percent, authorities said. The legal limit for drivers in Pennsylvania is .08 percent.

Bevan recently wrote a letter to the Press Enterprise of Bloomsburg about media coverage of the central Pennsylvania college's annual Block Party, an event critics have described as rowdy and alcohol-fueled.


I love irony.

[Phopojijo]

Its true that we generally are treated unfairly.

Largest demographic of drunken drivers (according to a driving instructor and paramedic) is 35-55 year-old males.

All this anti-teenager coverage only serves to give false security to the core demographic. How many times have I heard "It'll never happen to me". Heck one of my former (60-year-old) co-workers drove with a bottle of 5-star in her glove compartment. I should have called the cops on her but I never did. Luckily she also never hit anyone -- but it didn't make her any less dangerous than a teenager with alcohol in their blood.


The only purpose that picking on the teenage demographic serves is getting more viewers and votes.

Because calling your core voting/viewing demographic drunken accidents waiting to happen is bad for PR. Pick on their 20-year-old kids instead... they're too busy on "the internets" to vote or watch the news...

[Texrat]

I just liked the irony.

And I was there once, too. ;)

[Phopojijo]

Indeed... but I just had an issue with the article itself.

If the drunk driver is a teenager?

His name, his age, his school, his job, 10 minute piece on the news, interviews from classmates, names ages and jobs of all the victims.

If the drunk driver is part of the news demographic?

Quick blurb about the victim, and the last sentence "... the driver was allegedly drunk." Nothing about his name, face, age, nothing. Completely glazing over it.

Seriously.

[rossmum]

0.08!?

Shit, it's 0.05 here, zero for learners and provisional licenses...

[Bodzilla]

yeah one cherry ripe chocolate bar and your over the legal BAL

cause i'm such a danger on the road that i cant control my actions and will kill anything i see after i've eaten alcoholic food.
:downs:

Legislation blows.

[Texrat]

Phopo-- those details ARE in the story. So...???

[Phopojijo]

Phopo-- those details ARE in the story. So...???Because he's not aged 35-55 o.o

Hence my point.

[El Lobo]

lol

[Emmzee]

.147? Holy crap, he was hammered. A lesser man would be unconscious.

[Emmzee]

0.08!?

Shit, it's 0.05 here, zero for learners and provisional licenses...
Really? Last I heard, Australia's limit was .16. Or was I misinformed?

[Texrat]

Because he's not aged 35-55 o.o

Hence my point.

Ah. I still disagree. In our local police blotter, and news, all such details are published. I'm willing to bet that's the norm.

[Agamemnon]

I'm pretty sure the norm is the entertainment value in it. Thousands of people die everyday, but you'll only hear about the "interesting deaths" on the 4 o'clock news. Same goes with other news media coverage (also when filtering in bias).

[Texrat]

^ probably true. ;)

[rossmum]

Really? Last I heard, Australia's limit was .16. Or was I misinformed?
Misinformed.

[Bodzilla]

.16???

wtf man. aussies might be heavy drinkers but god fuckign dam.. thats alot of booze to be driving O_o

[Rob Oplawar]

College students are treated unfairly? We OWN this town! Boulder IS this college! Well, I guess it would be the outsiders then who would portray us in a bad light. Come to think of it, they do portray CU as alcohol central! Well, maybe that's because it is... but that's not the point.

[Bodzilla]

^sounds like heaven on earth