We think of journalism as an impartial method to convey issues happenning in the world. It is naive to think that journalists can truly be unbiased; it is not naive to think that journalists should strive to depict an accurate rendition of the events that actually occurred without inserting their own opinions.

Recently, at Monta Vista High School in California, there was an incident regarding a student who decided to run away from home. After a tragic bike accident that resulted in a student's death this past summer, the entire community has been on edge. When community members found out about the missing student, hundreds of volunteers came together to organize a search party to hopefully find the missing student. In the end, it turned out that the missing student had been hiding at school in an effort to go unnoticed. Since he had no food, he was eating fruit from the campus to survive. Luckily, he came home a few days later for reasons unspecified.

There was some coverage by the San Jose Mercury news, and the articles did help to mollify the fears of many residents. Soon after, MTV news picked up on this incident and published a brief article about it titled "Missing Teen Was Actually Just Hiding At School Eating Fruit For Four Days." The tactless article could surely have been written without describing the student with a pun: "Orange you glad to see me?". Why is this boy is being ridiculed on a national platform for running away?

After a few disapproving comments, some readers even claimed that this was alright because it was a "light-hearted" article. A relatively small incident in a small city does not need to be profiled on a national website. MTV's claim to fame is reality tv and coverage of celebrities--this incident does not even belong in belong in its jurisdiction. Community members volunteered several hours to find this missing student without even knowing him. An article making a mockery of the situation is not fair to the student, his family, or the residents of Cupertino. Journalists should be revealing and thought-provoking, but they do not need to be offensive to make their point.