Slave Leia Figures and Sensationalism in the Media

I've seen a lot of posts about the "news" story from Fox's Philly affiliate, FOX 29,​ talking about people being offended by a Star Wars Slave Leia figure that's been on toy shelves since the fall of 2013. Now, most people direct their ire towards the folks who were offended. I say don't even bother with them. People can get offended at anything, it's nothing new. It's not some sort of strange new thing. People have screamed, "won't someone think of the children" since time immemorial, so let it go.

No, your outrage should be with FOX 29. The catalyst for the story is a cellphone video a father took at a Target showing his girls pointing out the figure (come to think of it, if it was a spontaneous discovery, it's sorta weird that he was just filming them running down the aisle and pointing it out. Could be for presentation effect, but I don't know). After interviewing him in a Target parking lot (kinda weird, but okay) the news team then starts confronting other parents about this toy, which as I stated previously, has been a peg warmer (that's a figure that just sits there on the shelf for an incredibly long time, by the way) for almost TWO YEARS! Seriously, there's no way these parents didn't see this figure before. I just don't buy it.

Now, before you start thinking that I've donned a tin foil hat, I'm saying that these people are paid off or just completely oblivious morons. The figure just wasn't important enough to register on their radar. However, when you stick a news crew in front of anyone and ask for their opinion, that's when people are pressured to say something. This figure was a nonissue until FOX 29 made it an issue.

This, right here, is the problem with journalism today: Sensationalism. Making a story where one doesn't even exist and blowing it up to a massive proportion. I'm not saying, "they're distracting us from the real issues". That's dumb. People can concentrate on multiple stories at once. Our Reptilian Overlords™ in the Illuminati™ have nothing to do with this*. It's not distracting us from any of the BIG issues, it's just wasting our time and helping a (most likely) rich owner of a local news station get richer with every click we make to their site.

FOX 29 WANTS you to be furious. At who? It doesn't really matter. You could be furious at Hasbro for making the figure, furious at Target and other stores for selling it, or furious at them for making the story. It's all a win-win scenario for them, cuz it's all about getting the clicks and the viewers.

Best advice I can give? Just ignore the story. If you pay attention to it (which I do realize is a double edged sword because how am I supposed to talk about it and not pay attention to it) then they'll realize that this is what brings people in. Which means they'll start trying to capture that same kind of attention again by doing follow ups to this "story" and other little blurbs along the same line. Don't let their, "Shit, there's absolutely no news going on today. Better make something up" brand of news become the default (for them and other stations across the nation). Otherwise, where else would we get our reliable news from, other than the Associated Press, Reddit, other various websites, etc.

Till Next Time, Space Monkeys!

*Side note, can we knock it off with the New World Order/Illuminati crap? No, those videos you're sharing aren't evidence of a shape-shifting reptilian creature, that's just digital artifacting. It's very common in low rez and/or poorly compressed video. Thank you.