A Detroit TV station last week fell victim — as happens to many a journalistic outlet — to a bit of shooting of the messenger.

Fox 2 Detroit did a piece focusing on social media commentary about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s dress and body during the governor’s inaugural State of the State address. The Democratic governor and many of her peers, including Republicans, were quick to slam the station for the segment.

Whitmer called it “way out of line.” Republican Speaker of the state House Lee Chatfield called it “ridiculous” and said Fox 2 “never should have given these losers a platform to make these inappropriate statements.”

I disagree.

Fox 2 is certainly due some criticism for its piece, because I don’t think it accomplished all it was supposed to, but the station was right to air it, because I’m of the mind that ignoring a problem never makes it go away.

And there definitely was a problem.

I don’t remember anyone ever talking about what Gov. Rick Snyder wore, unless it was his annual bet with Lt. Gov. Brian Calley over the University of Michigan-Michigan State University football game, when the loser had to wear a tie bearing the winning team’s colors. Or when he recently sported a beard at a U-of-M basketball game.

The comment threads highlighted by Fox 2 illuminate the ongoing sexism in our society and the double standards faced by female leaders in politics, business, and elsewhere.

Here’s the explanation Fox 2 news director Kevin Roseborough gave for the story: “We chose not to ignore the comments, and to instead examine them through person-on-the-street interviews and an expert’s opinion on the double standard faced by female leaders. This is not a subject that should be turned away from, and we have extended an invitation to the governor to talk to us about this further.”

Couldn’t agree more, Kevin.

That said, such stories require a lot of fine-line walking by journalists. When you’re reporting on vile comments, how much time do you give to repeating those comments versus talking to experts who can put those comments into their societal and historical context?

You want to repeat some to show readers or viewers just how bad things really are. Doing so also holds folks accountable (Fox 2 showed the commenters’ names, so they’ll probably have to answer to their mother).

But you don’t want to give villainy too large a megaphone.

And you want to balance the comments with enough expert information that readers or viewers walk away from the piece with those thoughts — rather than the vile comments — in mind.

After watching the piece, I think Fox 2 was off-balance. There was too much repetition of the awful things people said and not enough information to put it in context. The expert they brought on talked (on camera, at least) as much about fashion choices for professional women as she did the inherent double standard they face. And there was no commentary in the piece about how we, as a society, can overcome it.

So the TV station certainly deserved some criticism. “Swing and a miss,” you could say, but at least they swung.

However, that is not the criticism the station received. People were angry at it for discussing the comments at all. And that, I think, is anger misplaced. I was much angrier at those making the comments than I was at those telling me about them.

That happens often to journalists.

You write a story about something going on in the community and get an angry letter or phone call or email or tweet or Facebook comment saying, essentially, “How dare you put something like that on the front page?”

It’s happened to me when I covered a neo-Nazi rally in downtown Lansing and when I interviewed an immigrant rights activist who’d intentionally had herself arrested and when I wrote about gay students at a Battle Creek high school.

But my writing about those things didn’t make them appear. They were already there, and the hope is that my writing gave people the information they need to reach out to policymakers and demand change, if that’s what they think is needed.

When you have a tumor, it continues to grow and infect, whether or not you look at your test results.

But, when you see your results, at least you can make informed decisions about how to respond.

You can see the Fox 2 video here: https://tinyurl.com/yy4jw5dn. You can see the Associated Press’s coverage of the controversy here: https://tinyurl.com/yya7lj52.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.