When I was at ThinkProgress we had an informal rule against critically reporting on ordinary people -- focus on power players. That New York Times rap lyric/college admissions story is one example of this taboo being blown up but there are many more, symptom of sadistic media.

Jerry Springers show is no longer on air but his show is basically the whole media now...

It is truly bizarre that the same people that tell system -isms are the problem also obsessively search for the opportunity to unveil a person uttering an offensive thought because the neurons in their brain happened to fire that way https://mobile.twitter.com/frongbak/status/1343389801110712322

In this case I think the kid that went after the girl in question was wrong, but think about the prestige system set up by institutions like the New York Times that create incentives for him to behave this way. This is a much bigger problem than individual choices by these kids..

When I was his age colleges and newspapers would laugh at you if you tried to disparage someone over impolitic or crude utterances over three seconds when they were fifteen. So therefore nobody really tried to do it. Now the leading newspaper will portray you as civil rights hero