Jesse Grant/WireImage.com It's no wonder gay men and women are still having to fight for our rights (marriage being just one issue) in a country where established media outlets, such as the New York Post and the somewhat more conservative Los Angeles Times, heartily endorse anti-gay language.
Specifically, when both the Post and the Times reported on Brett Ratner's horrendous use of the f-word in Hollywood recently, each paper blithely reprinted the offensive language in the reporting of the story, quite unlike, say, The New York Times, which chose correctly to not again run the epithet in their reporting
What's up with that?
The Post, I'm not so surprised. The paper's owned by people who associate with phone-tapping, after all.
But this isn't the first time the Times has come under fire for repeating anti-gay language.
When Kobe Bryant was fined a hundred grand for using the f-word last spring, the Times went whole-hog repeating the offensive word in their reporting of the story.
And they even defended their use of the anti-gay insult in a follow-up piece, in which the Times said they chose to re-use the homophobic term for "clarity" and "accountability."
Indeed, when we called the Times for comment on why the found it necessary to re-use the Ratner slur, the paper responded:
"We take a very careful look at repeating inflammatory language when reporting on its usage and weigh on a case by case basis. In this instance, it was germane to conveying the gravity of the slur and critical to providing context to the unfolding events."
Hmm. Wonder if the Times'd go so such use to defend re-printing of the n-word, if some idiot had used in a public situation?
Well, the lofty New York Times did, when describing that foul language that was found to be directly associated with presidential hopeful Rick Perry.
I say let's not re-use any of these terms, OK?
Because, the point is, even in the re-reporting of the story, the message gets passed along that somehow it's still ok to use the insults, on specific occasions. You know, if you're busy being all clear and accountable about it, and everything.
Sorry, just don't buy that. The bigotry still permeates the mind and gets passed along in the repetition.
Words help kill people. Wake up, already.