Petrelis Files

SF Chronicle:
Perez Hilton = 'Notoriously Vile'

Last week, I wrote about lack of donations from blogger Perez Hilton for retaining gay marriage in California, after he made a huge media splash over a beauty queen's opposition to marriage equality.

I mistakenly thought no one in the gay blogosphere had reported on Hilton not giving to the No on 8 campaign, when in fact, longtime freelance Las Vegas-based gay journalist Steve Friess had indeed blogged on this. A correction was posted to my blog.

Then last Friday, Friess penned a post labeling Hilton "vermin" and taking him to task over the controversy he created:

And the vermin Perez Hilton, who heretofore has done nothing whatsoever for gay rights and didn't donate a dime to fight against Proposition 8 last year, decided this was a great time to exploit the issue by recording a video blog in which he cackles about all the attention he's gettin over this and then calls Prejean a "dumb bitch." ...

Once the vermin Perez Hilton attacked this young woman, she became a right-wing hero and handed the Hannitys and Limbaughs of the world a clear-cut case of politically correct aggression with which to paint all gays who argue for marriage equality. ...

Now, today's San Francisco Chronicle, in an editorial I suspect was influenced by Friess' piece, has some nasty things to say about Perez:

It's a story with no heroes, no villains and no consequence. At a beauty pageant that nobody watches (the Miss USA beauty competition), a notoriously vile blogger (Perez Hilton) asked a controversial question ("Should every state legalize gay marriage?") to a barely articulate contestant (Carrie Prejean, also known as Miss California USA). ...

Part of the reason it's persisting is that both Prejean and Hilton want it to - as a result of all the attention, they're both making out like bandits. ...

It's win-win-win for the blogger, the beauty queen and the pageant promoters - and a distraction for an issue that deserves more serious and substantive discussion than it merited in this vacuous exchange.

And a win for the SF Chronicle, which is desperately trying to stay relevant, and alive, as a newspaper that attracts eyeballs to the print and online versions. Care to wager the editorial is bringing lots of readers to the Chron's web site today?