By SAMANTHA COHEN

A big discussion over this past week has been the controversy of Starbucks holiday cup.

On Sunday, Starbucks released its annual holiday cup, but this year left out snowflakes and vintage ornaments and inspirational quotes leaving a plain red cup. Rather than just accept the minimalist design, people became outraged. Many people were offended over Starbucks’ new design.

I was highly surprised when I visited numerous news media sites, only to see headlined stories of this issue on the front page. Rather than focus on major issues going on all over the world, news organizations are covering a story about a red cup. We live in a society where the color of a coffee cup can lead to a boycott.

I find this story unnecessary in the bigger scheme of things. I find it interesting, however, that news organizations are writing on how this controversy is stupid and that they still blast numerous articles on the front of their websites. We in the news business need to start refocusing our attention on bigger problems rather than the color of a coffee cup.