[REVIEW/RANT]: that article of CF11
gbres...@my-deja.com
CF11 so it can't be construed as a CON report, but...
The article could have generated some good discussion. I don't agree
that it's the best coverage we could ever hope for, nor do I think that
it is as unfair and disasterous as a few people think.
Perhaps my perceptions are skewed a bit. Just a week before it was
posted I attended NorWesCon, where I saw a video from a segment Jay Leno
did on the Tonight Show sometime back where they went to a Star Trek
convention in Burbank and walked around "interviewing" people. It was
clear that Jay and his crew thought the trekkies were all strange, and
they certainly came across pretty goofy on the video.
And I compare this article to the Leno piece because there isn't a lot
of traditional journalism being done outside of the BBC world service
and National Public Radio. Many (if not most) "alternative" papers are
owned by businesses that see them as infotainment vehicles, just like
the major papers and television news organizations.
Another reason my perceptions are skewed is similar experience I've had
in another rhealm of my life. For years I attended or marched in the
Seattle Lesbian & Gay (...and bisexual, transgendered, et cetera) Pride
parade, which was filled mostly with very boring and ordinary looking
folks, and every year the front page of both newspapers would care one
photo of the most shocking looking person who came. This was
particularly galling since just a week before the Pride parade every
year there would also be the Fremont Solstice Parade in another Seattle
neighborhood. And an annual tradition at the Solstice parade was the
Nude Bikers - a group of (mostly straight) men who would ride their
bicycles wearing nothing by a helmet and some body paint.
The same newspapers never ran pictures, and often listed the Parade in
their calendar section under "Fun for the Whole Family."
Many people within the community kept calling for us to clean up our act
. When it was pointed out the act was pretty darn clean already, they
just kept narrowing the target-sites. Whole groups were excluded from
the parade. Dress codes were published and attempts were made to enforce
them. It didn't help. The reporters just wandered around the park until
they found someone who was ejected from the parade...
It wasn't until we elected a lesbian to the city council and she
challenged some editors at a press luncheon that the nude bikers made it
onto the news. Or that they started showing a more balanced view of the
Pride Parade.
So I guess this has turned into a bit of a rant. Anyway, my points being
that I've seen far worse, the media does it to just about everyone, and
you fix it by confronting the reporters, not by demonizing each other.
--Gene
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