One would think that public speaking, especially pertaining to a political topic, would be a freedom and right all Americans have, as stated in the Constitution. However, the cast of Broadway's new monumental musical Hamilton received backlash from political figures and their supporters for merely addressing audience member Mike Pence, the at-the-time running Vice President, and his intentions for the country. One of the main outlets this backlash is shown on is media, both social and news. The media has taken advantage of the strategy of media bias to convince people that the Hamilton cast and their audience members harassed Mike Pence at a showing of the musical. Now, I know what you're thinking. "But dear author, you yourself are showing media bias within this article!" Yes, I am, but let's just sweep that fact under the rug like a Bill O'Reilly sexual assault case and ignore it.

November 19th, 2016, A day where donald trump tried to to get people to boycott hamilton.

He failed though, because there are no more tickets to not buy. That Friday, November 18th, 2016, Mike Pence walked into the Richard Rogers Theatre on Broadway to watch the insanely successful musical, Hamilton. As he entered, he was greeted with tremendous dissatisfaction and booing, though there was tiniest hint of applause. I guess that audience pretty much represents how America feels about him. After the show, during curtain call, he got up to leave, but was stopped when Brandon Dixon, who played Aaron Burr in the show, addressed Pence and made a speech to the running Vice President. The speech, which did not at all have an intent of attacking Pence, became worldwide news and was taken out of proportion by a certain Republican presidential nominee. After the debacle at the show, Trump received news about what had happened, and instead of being mature and presidential enough to just leave it alone or even release an adult-like official statement, he went straight to twitter (the tweets included below).

The speech, respectful and proper, sparked outrage from Trump supporters and anti-Trump protests in New York and all over the internet. New Yorkers gathered outside of the Richard Rogers Theatre in protest of the Trump campaign and in support of Dixon's message to Pence. Though most social media response was in support of the Hamilton cast, of course there were those who outright shamed Dixon and the cast for their so called "disrespect." Some people took to news articles and blogs to share their opinion on the situation. An article on Lifezette.com, written by their Popzette staff, described what happened to Pence, and used negative connotative words to show their pro-Pence bias. It obvious right away in the subtitle as they immediately begin with the word "conservaphobia." They didn't waste anytime, huh? "Mike Pence just wanted to see the biggest hit on Broadway," Popzette, 2016). Yeah, he just wants to see a play? Well, I just want the right to decide what to do with my own body, but we can't always get what we want. ALSO, the only quote from a witness that used was - "It was the most gross display of disrespect I've ever seen," (Popzette, 2016). I bet you repeatedly chant "build the wall" too, huh?

Now, in all seriousness, I believe in freedom of opinion. You do you. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. I will not shame anyone for their opinion, no matter how much I may disagree with it. This entire editorial is but my own. We all have an opinion, it's a big reason media bias is huge (yuge- Trump pun). With social media at our fingertips, media bias is almost inevitable, but it's best to try to be as unbiased as possible to report accurate facts and let people form their on opinion based on that information.

Written by high school senior nadia p.

sources

1. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/mike-pence-hamilton-musical/index.html
2. http://www.lifezette.com/popzette/mike-pence-harassed-hamilton/