The opening shots have been fired by both sides in the battle over a proposed amendment to the Texas state Constitution that would bar same-sex marriage, and the targets are thousands of voters.
Governor Rick Perry spammed the internet this week, sending out emails to 10,000 Texans asking for their support for the amendment.
In turn, an anti-amendment group sent out 10,000 mailers, stuffing the mailboxes of Democrats accusing Perry and his fellow Republicans of attacking gay and lesbian families. [*]
WOW! Look at that complete 180 in tone! Things like this would be why 365gay.com remains so irrelevant in current gay culture. Disgraceful, shameless and biased media outlets are by no means limited to the theocratic right.
Thank’s for being consistent, Dan. Spin is no more admirable on our side than it is when Exodus or Focus prints it.
Is it really spam if you are sending it to people that have signed up to receive it?
I’m here in Texas, and I plan to fight this with all I have and blog about the fight as it heats up.
You’re right. Let’s hear it for He Said, She Said journalism, where there is no good or evil and
even a governor who wants to make gays and lesbians in their state second class citizens is accorded equal respect for their actions with citizens fighting for liberty and justice for all. If only segregationist governors had been treated with a little more respect back in the day.
Isn’t it wicked how those biased liberal elitist news papers and TV networks were bellyaching about Pat Robertson’s calling for the assasination of Hugo Chavez like there was something wrong with what he’d done? It isn’t the responsibility of journalists to make value judgements like that. And so what if a Long and Foster agent discriminated against a gay home buyer? They use the word ‘discriminate’ as though there’s something bad about that. Journalists shouldn’t make value judgements.
News should be free of value judgements. I saw a news report about a drunk driving death here in Baltimore the other day, and it was presented to the viewers like there was something wrong with drunk drivers killing people. That’s bias.
Ah, but the media did often give “respect” to those segregationists – that’s the point. I’m not sure where the attitude is coming from but if your point is that media should inject their own opinion into reported news, I couldn’t disagree more. The editorial section is reserved for them to use as their “conscience”. Your view (if that is your view) assumes that a) all events will have only one valid interpretation. This may be true of things like murder and drunk driving, but many issues are far more subtle. And b) that all media outlets will faithfully represent that interpretation. We know that one isn’t true.
Nothing good comes from presenting what should be simply the facts through someone else’s view of the world. As much as is humanly possible, this should be avoided to preserve the integrity of the information. The alternative is to allow news to become propaganda.
Dan, I haven’t the foggiest notion of what point you are trying to make. Are you saying the 365 gay report IS bias or is NOT bias, and if so, how?
Bill- I’m not dan, but from the bold in his post, I believe he is saying they are biased. They called Perry’s email campaign spamming, but then said the gay group just sent out mailers (no inflammatory tone for them).
Yeah, I emailed Bill with exactly that Brady.
Thanks, got the e-mail. Spam is the term for a large e-mailing. What is the term for a mailing to the same number of snail mail boxes? I think they just got caught in a situation where there is no equivalent term, not that they were intentionally bias. Awkward phrasing in any case.
Two points.
One, it is highly likely that Perry was using TX government computers for pro-amendment campaign purposes, whereas it is highly unlikely that anti-amendment groups were using TX government computers to advertise against the campaign. There is a difference.
Two, don’t believe what you hear, see or read in any media outlet, just because it’s there. All media outlets have biases, even the NYTimes. Be informed by several outlets, and you might get a decent idea about what is going on in the world.