Viewer's Voice: Special Edition

Yesterday, we told you about the controversy around a video by a local rap artist known as "The Franchise" on MySpace.
     
It prominently featured the Carteret County courthouse and other land marks.
     
Some in the county say it sends the wrong message, claiming it glorifies drugs and violence in Carteret County.
    
Well, a lot of you took exception to that report and even called us biased for reporting it.  In this special Viewer’s Voice, we need to sort out who said what.  And why they said it.
 
As we said this week, this rap video has been online for two years, but after our report and complaints from a Carteret County commissioner, it was pulled from MySpace. And wet got a lot of response blaming us for that.
 
"To single out this video is unfair,” Megalene Bryant wrote, “when there is so many other videos out there expressing the same thing. And to paste this rapper all over the news making assumptions is so wrong and stating that he didn't just sit around and drew it up, he probably experienced it… is an "unfair' statement."
 
But the fact is, we didn’t make that statement. Newport town councilman Eric Lindblade did when comparing the video to "art imitating life."
 
Then another Carteret County resident wrote, "All this is a bunch of nonsense. You are attacking the good guys for being artistic and doing something positive like making music while the real criminals are on the streets doing the stuff you are so alarmed about.”
 
Again, let’s be clear, we did not attack anyone. Our story was about a video that some in government thought glorified drugs and gangs in their community- a community that was featured in the video.
 
Then, Preceious Jewell 12 accused us of being biased. 
 
"Stop judging and just report the news in an unbiased way! Maybe you did not understand the video because of a cultural difference. Not all rap is bad, nor does it always glorify drugs, prostitution and murder. Take it for what it is- entertainment."
 
Well, no one in our report disputed that rap is entertainment.
 
And, no one in the newsroom had any feeling one way or the other about this video- police and local politicians did.
    
Many of you were also upset with us because another video by the same artist, which was a dedication to someone killed in 2005, was pulled from MySpace as well.
      
You said it was a rap video with a good message.
    
It may be, but we copywrite our newscast to protect content. And the artist included a large portion of one of our newscasts in that video without permission.
      
That is against the law
     
We still want you to weigh in on the issue. Just click on the Reader Reaction link below to voice your opinion on this subject!