This one time, on the band trip to Michigan...

The hazing by the University of Wisconsin band is leading off every state/local news segment right now. I'm not going to defend the band's behavior because of few of their actions were truly boorish. Is this really a story that deserves this much attention, though? Many of the hazing activities are, at worst, a little embarrassing. I'm not here to criticize UW for how they are handling this...in today's social/legal climate, they have to act to head off any potential future lawsuits. My concern is how blown out of proportion this story has been on the news. When I first saw the allegations, I was really neither surprised nor shocked. In my experience, bands can be a little wilder than the image most people of in their brains about 'band geeks'. The upperclassmen in this story showed very bad judgement and poor taste in several of the hazing incidents, but minus anything else coming out of this like a harassment suit, it is being way over covered by local media.