Bilerico.com Co-Opted
by Corrupt GLAAD
Have you noticed that in the past few months, there has been more toxic gushing than the Gulf Coast oil spill, spewing from assorted contributors to Bilerico.com about one of their favorite Gay Inc groups, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation?
I have, as I've look over this starry-eyed coverage and see how the group blog is co-opted by a worthless social-climbers' organization sucking up gay dollars for six-figure salaries.
We really don't need Bilerico.com serving as a docile lapdog to this organization, abandoning all watchdogging responsibilities. Some examples of the gushing, with my comments italicized:
1.
In this town of red carpeting, you can always trust that GLAAD's Director of PR, Rich Ferraro, will make you glad you showed up, and with extra batteries for your camera. -Father Tony, November 11, 2010.
(And you can pretty much trust that any Bilerico.com piece about GLAAD will mention the carpeting.)
2.
I got the amazing opportunity to cover the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards in New York City. It was my first time at a glitzy awards ceremony or covering a red carpet (even though the carpet was technically more of a cerulean... but who's counting). -Jason Tseng, March 14, 2010.
(What's so amazing about a politically useless, money-making scheme involving a carpet?)
3.
We've been honored to be nominated for a 2011 GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Blog category. You can check out the nominees for all the other categories to see a star-studded list of media personalities and properties. -Bil Browning, January 20, 2011.
(How can a politically-oriented, allegedly independent blog even think of accepting, much less think it's any sort of honor, an award from a non-profit organization they should be scrutinizing more often and in depth beyond the carpeting colors?)
4.
I'll be joining others from the press to cover this year's GLAAD Media Awards. I've never covered an event like this before for my blog, nor have I contributed content for an awards show for The Bilerico Project, which just so happens to be up for a nomination...so all sorts of excitement surround this event for me. -March 19, 2011, Leone Kraus.
(She should get out more often, if she thinks these awards and the faux glam are worth getting excited about.)
5.
The blue carpet (don't ask) was filled with members of the press last night, including Joe Jervis from Joe.My.God and me, for the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. -March 20, 2011, Leone Kraus.
(Another reference to carpeting!)
6.
If you are on Twitter and follow @glaad, then you know that social media was a huge part of the GLAAD Media Awards this year. Almost every memorable moment was captured on Twitter, thanks to Allison Palmer, director of digital initiatives at GLAAD. Allison was responsible for executing the event's social communications via the @glaad Twitter account. There wasn't a red carpet or show moment that Allison missed. -Leone Kraus, March 21, 2011.
(One more day, one more fawning piece by this writer who again references the damn carpet and its color.)
7.
When I attended the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on Saturday, March 19, I thought I would be star struck when I saw Ricky Martin or Tina Fey but I wasn't. I didn't feel anything. -Leone Kraus, March 22, 2011.
(The fourth and final puff piece on the awards at Bilerico.com)
Three examples of the closest we get to anything the least bit critical from the group blog site about this organization:
A.
GLAAD has a petition up, which might help if The Mike Gallagher Show legitimately thinks they're helping and isn't looking at this as a publicity stunt. -Alex Blaze, January 15, 2011.
(Yawn, a limp-wristed tap on the wrist of the GLAAD folks over a show most of us have never heard of.)
B.
Karen [Ocamb] has a long video of Craig Zadan's introduction of Ricky Martin at the GLAAD awards, and Zaden outlines why Martin won: he's hot, he's charming, he came out, he had a successful album last year, he wrote an autobiography entitled Me (yup, no ego there), and he's done some very fashionable charity work. -March 24, 2011, Alex Blaze.
(Sheesh, more criticism is heaped upon Ricky Martin than GLAAD. Is there a limit on allowable criticism at Bilerico.com and did Alex use up all of his criticism ration cards?)
C.
Look, I know these awards are there to get a big star to show up so then a nonprofit corporation like GLAAD can fundraise a bit. I'm not criticizing the fact that Ricky Martin got this award - the schmoozy side of show biz isn't going to die without me. -March 24, 2011, Alex Blaze.
(Alex is not criticizing anything about the whole rotten GLAAD awards scam either. And these awards are there to also co-opt blogs like Bilerico.com by nominating them for supposed honors.)
If ever awards are given out for a gay group blog least likely to challenge the status quo, corruption, lack of democratic engagement and town halls, no commitment to open-invitation organizing ways of Gay Inc, rest assured Bilerico.com will be honored with a plaque.
A disclosure is required of me, at this point. I have cross-posted several of my post at Bilerico.com in the past two years.
On A: why didn't you quote further down the page?
ReplyDelete"Indeed, "for more than 20 years" they've been "protesting," but the "brave and patriotic American families" and "fallen soldiers" didn't see "Thank God for IEDs" until about a decade ago. Before that they just protested gay people's funerals and the funerals of people who died because of HIV/AIDS and the media didn't care because they were just good Christians protesting the perverts. Then they got the bright idea to protest the soldiers who were killed in Iraq and suddenly the media noticed they existed and roundly condemned them as the worst people in America.
Yeah, the worst thing about WBC is that they protest The Troops, the real, straight (please don't ask), American heroes and the innocent (so they can't be sexual, much less gay) victims of national tragedies. If only they had stuck with fags.
I would have hoped that GLAAD wouldn't perpetuate that revisionist history, but here we are."
Oh, wait, that's right, it doesn't prove your point.
On B: The reason there was more criticism of Ricky Martin there than GLAAD is because the post was about Ricky Martin's relationship to Target. If anything, Target got most of the criticism.
On C: See above. The post wasn't about the GLAAD awards. Sorry. You're not my editor so I don't take marching orders from you.
As for the others, you'll have to take it up with them. Contributors on Bilerico maintain pretty much total control over what they write about.
But I don't really know how they prove your point anyway; Leone and Jason going to one show doesn't mean that a) they won't ever criticize GLAAD, b) they would have criticized GLAAD had they not gone, and c) everyone else who didn't go wasn't impressed by the awards.
On the other hand JMG won his award and 100% of his contributors were at the ceremony. I'm thinking he'd beat us out for that other plaque going by your standards.
What do you expect from a Gay Inc/Gay Illuminati blog? They're all part of the same GayINC "InsidersOUT" (http://gayilluminati.com) country club.
ReplyDeleteGLAAD stands for "God, Look At All the Douchebags"
ReplyDeletehi alex,
ReplyDeleteok, i stand corrected about a minor point. you mildly criticized GLAAD once about revising history related to the phelps' clan.
however, you've written nothing in this comment to change my mind about bilerico.com being co-opted by GLAAD.
if there's been any serious criticism at your group blog about this worthless organization, please share the info with me.
hi marti,
ReplyDeletefor a group blog like bilerico.com i naively thought they would show some real independence. however, i learned by reading it that it's quite co-opted by GLAAD, the haas jr fund, the stonewall democrats and other components that comprise gay inc.