For years now, I have always hated the way the media portrays individuals. I have always gotten the impression that they are out to expose someone, rather than lift them up.

Take Carson King, for example, a college student who held up a sign at College Gameday asking for people to Venmo him to "replenish his Busch Light supply."

King's simple sign helped him raise more than $2 million. This is an amazing story, it really made my heart happy when I read about how he is donating the money, rather than pocket it and buy alcohol.

Then when I woke up this morning, I read that a Des Moines Register reporter, Aaron Calvin, had dug up tweets from when King was a sophomore in high school.

Why? What part of that was necessary? Why try and take away this amazing act of generosity? Was it just so they can have their next major story? Was there too much good in the news, so you had to find something negative? You were assigned to promote the good that he is doing, these tweets had absolutely nothing to do with the story you were assigned.

From my four years as a college student, I can promise you this: EVERY single student is far more mature now than they were when they were 16 years old. The surfacing of these tweets sent a lot of my friends into a tirade on Facebook and Twitter. For good reason, too — Especially after Anheuser-Busch decided to cut any future relationship with King.

This is not the first time reporters have dug way too far into someone's past. Arizona Cardinals quarterback, and for Oklahoma Football star Kyler Murray fell victim to the ruthless media as well. In December of 2018, just hours after Murray won the Heisman Trophy, a reporter came out with a handful of tweets from when Murray was 14 and 15 years old.

Shortly after being named the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Championship Game, Villanova guard Donte Divincenzo became a victim of the same cold-hearted media. Again, when Divincenzo was just 14 years old, he tweeted out lyrics to a rap song that he liked. These lyrics contained racist and inappropriate words.

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader has experienced the same wrath the Murray, Divincenzo, and now King have all faced. In Hader's case, the tweets surfaced when he was 24 years old. These tweets were almost 10 years old at that time. They came to the attention of the public shortly after Hader was selected for his first All-Star game.

If you haven't noticed yet, all four of these incidents came after a lifelong dream had been accomplished. King may not have been dreaming of raising a million dollars, but it was still something he will never forget for as long as he lives. For the three athletes mentioned, they all had just accomplished things they have dreamed about since they were little kids.

Every little kid holding a football has hit the Heisman pose at least a dozen times in their lives.

Every tee-ball player pictures themselves making that huge play to win a game, or walking it off in style, they dream of being recognized for how good they are.

Every YMCA basketball player visualizes themselves hitting that buzzer-beater in the national championship, or dropping 30 in that same game, or both!

Until that one kid always comes along and ruins the fun.

In this case, that one kid is the media. Because, you know, why congratulate someone on achieving their dreams when you can instead bring up something shameful they did when they were an immature high school — or even middle school — kid?

Now, I also want to say that I am not advocating that what these people did was OK. The tweets they sent out were inappropriate, and should not have been posted. It was wrong of them to do, but, I also feel the media has gone too far and has crossed a line. Instead of shooting someone down, lift them up. Don't chase the bad in life, chase the good! The media has a lot more influence on today's society than I would like to admit they do. I would love to be able to scroll through the news and see nothing but the wonderful things people do — Like raising over a million dollars for a children's hospital, winning the Heisman trophy, winning a national championship, or being selected to your first ever All-Star game.