Media Ethics Lesson: Idris Elba and Essence Magazine

The man I love dearly - Idris Elba - is on the August cover of Essence magazine!

(Can you believe I pulled a media ethics lesson out of this!)

Last week while having lunch with my journalist-friend Stacey, we read the accompanying profile piece of the British actor with high anticipation. But you know that feeling you get when you look forward to reading a particular magazine article or new book, only to be disappointed and even cheated out of the money wasted to purchase the magazine or book.

That is how we both felt after reading the profile. Why you ask? Well, lets just say we were not too fond of all the "cake eating" going on in the article.

The article was written by acclaimed journalist Jeannine Amber and was based on her recent lunch date/interview with Elba. While the article is mainly about the actor's recent career moves since leaving The Wire, readers will get distracted by the writer's constant fantasizing of the different sexual positions she would like to do with him.

Oh my!!!

Now, mind you, I'm not an old prude. I love "String" as much as the next woman (or man), but there was something really sleazy and even creepy about the writer's interpretation of the meeting. I have never met the man in person before, although I got to do an email interview with him for a story about a PBS program he hosted last year. Nonetheless, based on other interviews he has done, he doesn't strike Stacey and I as the type of bloke who would want to partake in such an article.

Or maybe I am getting more prude as I get older. Luckily, based on some of the comments on Essence's website for this article, I'm not the only one who feels this way.

But even as a journalist, I couldn't imagine myself writing such an sexually charged article like this, even if I did get a chance to meet Elba. I would be too worried about being taken seriously by editors I would want to work with in the future. Besides being drop-dead gorgeous, Elba has a lot more going on for him, which Amber could have delved into more with him, such as his acting career before his stint as Stringer Bell, or what he likes about being DJ Big Driis. But that's just me thinking out loud.

Stacey had a nuanced view on the article in question; if a similar article about an actress was written by a male journalist, wouldn't people be calling it sexist?

Discuss...