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A Gay-Bashing Weekend

First, the Washington Post takes money to distribute a divisive, homophobic advertorial. Find a summary of the kerfuffle and a link to the drekkish material at “Editor and Publisher”: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000725897

Next, I learn that last night, 20/20 aired a show challenging that Matthew Shepard’s death was a hate crime, a show called “intellectually brave” by Virginia Heffernan, writing for the New York Times (linked by way of SFGate).

I’m really glad to learn what the New York Times thinks is meant by intellectual bravery, because up to now I might have thought it meant reporters refusing to drink the KoolAid just long enough to seriously question whether we really did have weapons of mass destruction before we abandoned our commitment to hunt down Osama bin Laden, choosing instead to wage war in Iraq. Or maybe “intellectual bravery” could mean keeping that question open during the presidential campaign, instead of parroting Fox News. Instead, we now know “intellectual bravery” means choosing to run with an insidious revisionist message, the “let’s rethink this, shall we” version of the Big Lie, the same week that the Washington Post allowed a homophobic organization to use a misleading commercial insert to pit blacks against gays. And please tell me the Washington Post would have the “intellectual bravery” to take money for an insert that was a racist critique of African-Americans.

I’ll try to give thanks, anyway:

I give thanks that GLAAD and Human Rights Campaign have spoken out against the 20/20 piece already, and that GLAAD has launched 20 Minutes/20 Dollars. Go now and speak out.

I give thanks that I live in California, not Virginia.

I give thanks that Matthew Shepard’s mother has spoken out against the disinformation.

I give thanks that we haven’t lost our civil liberties (yet).

I give thanks for this forum.

And here I was, in a nice little librarian’s cocoon, getting ready to do my homework and thinking fond thoughts about the new jacket I bought yesterday at Petite Sophisticate (for half-price, no less) during our annual Black Friday excursion to San Francisco.

I cannot believe either media event would have happened if Kerry had won. I’m just praying Frank Rich is not on vacation and is sharpening his quill.

Posted on this day, other years:

This was written by K.G. Schneider. Posted on Saturday, November 27, 2004, at 10:48 am. Filed under Gay Rights, Get Real!. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.