osarusan

These people are harassing children and spewing hate messages. No they're not violent terrorists, but they're closer to that than they are to debaters.

both sides allowed to voice their positions in neutral language

Neutral language? Are you kidding me??

This is not a debate. One side's position is "we want an after school club where we can learn about science and feel accepted." The other side's position is "you are evil and deserve to die." If you give those two positions equal time, you are not being neutral. And there is no "neutral language" for hate speech.

And you’re trying to argue that “New club starts after school, kids have fun” Is some gross misrepresentation of what you said?

Yes. Because that's not what I said at all. Go read what I actually fucking said.

It was a completely inoffensive article

It wasn't.

that you blatantly misrepresented so you could offended. Sorry, but you clearly tried hard to do so.

I didn't.

And I notice that you didn’t actually challenge any of my claims.

Because it was a dishonest troll comment that misrepresented what I said. Just like this one is too. There's nothing to challenge when all that you wrote was dishonest. And there's no reason to treat you seriously when you're just trolling.

Well I wouldn't have expected them to publish kids' names for exactly the reason you suggest. But getting quotes from them should have been possible. And in any case, whether they quote the kids or not, at the minimum I expect them not to platform the people spewing hate. I don't agree with you that what the article does is simply "shining a light." They're helping them out.

“New club starts after school, kids have fun”

Except this is not what I said at all.

Nice try at a dishonest post though. Read what I actually wrote and try again.

you had to try very hard to be offended by it.

Nah, I didn't have to try very hard at all. But clearly you put a lot of thought into being a troll. Hopefully you didn't hurt yourself.

Is it though?

"After School Satan Club"

Is that provocative? Is that offensive? Would you say that the school's evangelical "Good News Club" is provocative or trolling?

Calling is a Satan Club is "only to make Christians mad" but calling it a "Good News Club" is not trolling to make non-Christians mad? This says more about your own prejudices than anything else.

Articles like this are exactly what the club wants.

Yeah, probably.

I get where you're going with this, but I'm not following along.

Pointing out that there were protesters and explaining what they were doing there/why they were there is one thing. And that's important news. But this article went way way beyond that. They interviewed the protestors, put their names in the paper, and published their bigoted message along with it. They gave them fame and a platform, and helped them spout their hatred.

When there's a terrorist attack, responsible news agencies are careful to avoid giving unnecessary publicity to the terrorists, such as publishing their name and manifesto, and instead they focus on the victims. That's the attitude that should have been taken here. Mention the protestors, but don't platform them. Focus on the kids who are being harassed by these bigots, and show them in the positive light they deserve.

Shining a light on them is mentioning that there were protesters there with signs while still focusing on the club.

Giving them a platform is dedicating half of the article to the protestors, quoting their bigoted signs, interviewing 2 of the protesters for bigoted quotations and publishing those quotes along with their names, then not interviewing or quoting any of the students.

Exactly. These clubs are not being put into schools by some outside corporation. They are made by students, with faculty support, like all clubs. The Satanic Temple provides support to these groups, because without an organization like them to back them up, clubs like this would all get shut down by bigoted principals and PTA groups.

They're not. It's a dishonest argument.

I don't see it that way. What I see is the author giving a platform to bigots under the disguise of what should have been a story focused on what the club actually does.

The club is being protested because of ignorance and bigotry. A responsible journalist would help to banish the ignorance by exposing the truth that fear and hatred is unnecessary. Instead, they provided a platform for bigots to spew more their hatred, even quoted two of them, and promoted a Christian club that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the article.

That's not neutral reporting.

What infuriates me about articles like this is that it really should just say that the school Satanic Club had its first meeting, the kids had a great time, here's everything they did and what they plan to do for the year, and here are some kids' reactions and quotes about the club.

Instead, it says the kids had "a great time" and then moves on to the protesters, offering them several paragraphs to spew their vile hate speech, repeating the garbage that their hate-filled signs say, and then even quoting two people. And then it follows that with basically an advertisement for "the Good News club, a Christian evangelical Bible club that meets before school hours."

It's a sign of how biased society is towards religion that an article about a non-theistic after school club gives half of the article to a handful of religious bigots to let them spew their hate speech and then promotes their own Christian school club.

Thank you! I'll give that a try.