Today I visited your site (I should know better) for updates on the Cleveland kidnapping case. As I read about the horrors Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight endured for a decade, I couldn’t help noticing the links on the right side of the page: Kim Kardashian sports a “tiny bikini,” some other woman resigns from her job over a bikini scandal, Alec Baldwin’s daughter (her name wasn’t even provided; apparently her identity matters far less to you and your readers than her paternity) responds to someone’s criticism of her bikini body, and Lindsey Lohan isn’t allowed to leave her latest rehab facility.

Do you not see anything wrong with this?

Only the third story (people criticizing a young woman for having a “less than perfect” body) has any social significance, and even that, I would argue, does not belong as a prominent link from the Cleveland article. The others, while they might generate clicks and revenue, are just puff pieces. Featuring them next to a story about the kidnapping, rapes, and long-term captivity of three young women is beyond insensitive and inappropriate: It trivializes what they and Amanda Berry’s daughter experienced. It relegates their story to the same level as the latest celebrity gossip. It renders them objects of prurient fascination rather than human beings we regard with compassion and admiration.

I’m a firm believer that women should be able to dress however they want, whenever they want. But juxtaposing Kim Kardashian’s bikini body with this story draws disturbing parallels between the way she has built an empire by exploiting her sexuality, and the way Ariel Castro spent a decade exploiting and violating three young women. Kardashian’s body has been the primary vehicle for her fame, fortune, and maybe even empowerment, and part of me wants to say, Good for her, if that’s what she wants (and obviously it is). But part of me objects to the idea that a woman whose initial notoriety came from her willingness to degrade herself sexually (that infamous golden shower with the rapper whose name I no longer remember) has risen to the status of a cultural icon. I am in no way blaming Kardashian for the kidnappings, rapes, and brutalization of the Cleveland women; that responsibility rests on Ariel Castro alone. I do believe, however, that there is a correlation between our societal obsession with dysfunctional women and men like Castro, who view women as nothing more than objects for their sadism and pleasure. They’re on opposite ends of the spectrum, yes, but they’re part of the same spectrum.

The New York Times, the LA Times, and other media outlets are treating the Cleveland story with class and, more importantly, with the seriousness and respect Amanda Berry, Jocelyn, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight deserve. This is a story about brutality, survival, bravery, heroism, and the profound connections these women have with each other and with their families. It’s a story with far-reaching implications we haven’t even begun to fathom.

In short, HuffPo, it’s a story that doesn’t belong on the same page as entertainment fluff. This isn’t entertainment; this is reality, and it ought to be handled with gravity, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity. I’ll find my news — about this and other stories — elsewhere from now on.