I warned you.
Several weeks ago,
I reported on plans for the gathering of the
National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in San Francisco, which
took place last weekend.
I told you this conference was important for one reason — it’s the best example of how our national press corps has become a band of activists, promoting political and cultural causes under the guise of objective news reporting.
While I have been chronicling the activities of this group for several years, it wasn’t until the 10th anniversary convention in San Francisco last weekend that the group truly came out of the closet with regard to its own activist agenda.
This is not, as the group has portrayed itself, a “professional organization” that promotes higher standards, or gives its members a chance to compare notes, or an outfit that plans good parties for homosexual journalists once a year. It is, instead, a group that has bent so far toward changing the newsroom culture that the big debate in San Francisco was whether journalists should even bother getting other points of view on homosexuals’ issues and stories.
Did you catch that? What was on the table at the NLGJA conference was the question of whether those with differing viewpoints on homosexuality and the special “rights” activists are asserting for them based on their behavior should even have a say in news stories.
CBS correspondent and NLJGA member Jeffrey Kofman made his thinking clear: “The argument (is): Why do we constantly see in coverage of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues the homophobes and the fag-haters quoted in stories when, of course, we don’t do that with Jews, blacks, et cetera?”
Paula Madison, vice president of diversity at NBC and news director for the NBC’s New York City affiliate WNBC, added: “I agree with him. I don’t see why we would seek out … the absurd, inane point of view just to get another point of view.”
Kofman rejoined: “All of us have seen and continue to see a lot of coverage that includes perspectives on gay issues that include people who just simply are intolerant and perhaps not qualified as well.”
This was political correctness gone wild.
And guess who paid for it?
As with past NJLGA conferences, the 10th anniversary gathering was heavily funded by media corporations, which also recruited at the event. Among the sponsors were: Hearst Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Inc., CBS News, Gannett Foundation, CNN, Bloomberg News, NBC News, the Dallas Morning News, FOX News Network, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Inc., Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News.
ABC News’ Peter Jennings was scheduled to speak but canceled due to a conflict. (I say he chickened out after reading my last column on the subject.) George Stephanopoulos, ABC News commentator and former suck-up to President Clinton, addressed the group by satellite hook-up. He’s got no shame, of course. This event was a step up from the White House.
So, what’s the meaning of all this?
I’ll tell you. Here’s what you can expect to see in the months and years ahead in the establishment press.
Up until now, lip service has been paid to the notion of balance in the press. Even though we all know it is a myth and that the corporate media are in bed with the very groups they claim to be covering objectively, there was a “pretense” toward fairness. That’s gone. Hasta la vista. Bye-bye.
In the future, the controlled media will become more controlled. The American press will offer you an official version of events. And you won’t read anything that might make you think differently than the government and cultural elite want you to think.
Until, of course, you just stop accepting the lies.
Many of you already have. You’re sick and tired of the network news and you’re not going to take it anymore. That’s good. But many more need to join you on your enlightened path to new news sources.
You see, groups like the NLGJA are simply, whether they know it or not, mapping their own route to self-destruction and disenfranchisement.
In my humble opinion, it couldn’t happen to a more arrogant bunch of mind-control fascists.
