A video of a woman walking down every borough of New York City went viral on Oct. 28. She spent 10 hours walking through the entirety of Manhattan and received over a hundred catcalls. The video created a lot of talk about women’s safety and rights.

CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield hosted a segment to discuss the video. She invited the author of “The MANual and Code of Honor” Steve Santagati and comedian Amanda Seales. In the interview that could only be described as a joke, Santaganti said things like “I want to start a coalition against women who don’t compliment men.”

CNN had a chance to start a conversation on catcalling, about race and gender and all of the sensitive topics surrounding it. Instead they threw someone who had no intention of listening to the opposition before him and who threw out wild claims.

Seales was frustrated at the lack of a meaningful dialogue created by CNN, “The reality is, a lot of women, when we leave the house, we are not looking for compliments,” she said. “If we say we don’t like it, and we are demonstrating that, then you should actually, as a man who is a man of honor and wrote a book about this, should be saying ‘well let’s discuss how to make you feel more comfortable.’”

CNN was not starting a discussion with Santagati, what he did was a waste of airtime because it was just a ploy for more views and more controversy. This segment could have been a chance for something more profound.

There was no thoughtfulness in the choice of Santagati other than for what would work best for a shouting match. If CNN could have used the time they had while the video was still a hot topic to listen to the issues women face just walking down the street then maybe something significant could have come out of this.

Media outlets undermine the platforms they have by losing the reflection and care that topics like this deserve and replacing it with sensationalism. It’s callous to use problems that actually affect women and are serious as life or death to gain views.

When there is an actual conversation about women’s safety and there is concern from people of all sexes women might start to feel more comfortable.