Supplemental Post #4 Nick Young and Celebrity Exemption

Last week, it came out that shooting guard for the LA Lakers, Nick Young, was recorded talking about cheating on his fiance, singer Iggy Izaalea by Nick's teammate, D'Angelo Russell.  Apparently, Russell has since been ostracized by his teammates to the point where no one will sit with him at meals and the team just lost by one of the worst margins in history.  The media is criticizing Russell for betraying Young's trust, but no one seems to be criticizing Young for cheating.  Yes, there could have been a better way to confront Young about his cheating, but there would be no trust issues within the team if Young didn't cheat in the first place.  The media's reaction speaks to a trend of celebrities not being held accountable for their actions.  From Nick Young to more extreme cases like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, celebrities are known to get off easy for their actions.  This is largely because they are wealthy and can use that money to lessen their punishment, but this reveals a problem with our justice system.  Whatever happened to you do the crime, you do the time?  Most people would agree that cheating is not ok, so why does the media find blame in Russell when his action led to truth being revealed?    All people seem to care about is the fact that the Lakers are doing terribly and that Russell broke guy code by ratting out his teammate.  We give celebrities a break because we have invested so much of our time and money into them and thoroughly enjoy experiencing their talent.  But, if we give them a break, our continued support of them reveals a contradiction in our own personal morals.  It is difficult to separate our love for a celebrity's talent from our admiration of them as a person.  If we enjoy their talent, does that mean we condone all their actions?  That should not be the case, but it is hard to separate the two once the crime has been committed.  In the case of sports celebrities, money talks and for Nick Young, this scandal could help to increase game attendance because the Lakers are back on our radar despite their poor performances.  While the media helped to out a cheater by spreading the recorded video, they once again showed a lack of integrity by criticizing Russell instead of Young and helping to perpetuate celebrity exemption.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15095276/dangelo-russell-center-los-angeles-lakers-rift-video-took-nick-young-made-public