Controversy: August 2007 Archives

MSNBC is insulting our intelligence with this one.
If you watch the cable channel and see a re-airing of Tucker Carlson talking about how he went all Rambo on some guy he said was "bothering" him in a public restroom when he was in high school, you'll miss the party about he and a friend returning and smashing the guy's head against a stall.
According to Media Matters: "…Both August 29 re-airings did include Carlson’s claim that he had been “bothered in men’s rooms,” neither broadcast aired the portion in which Carlson claimed that he “went back with someone” and “hit him against the stall with his head.” Both re-airings did include a portion of the segment in which Carlson asserted, “I’m not anti-gay in the slightest.”

The Sen. Larry Craig scandal is bringing out the worst in some of television's pundits with Tucker Carlson sinking the lowest. On MSNBC last night, Carlson was chatting with Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough and Abrams wanted to know why Carlson had once indicated a person's sexual orientation wasn't really anyone else's business.
Carlson felt compelled to say: “Let me be clear, Dan. I’m not gay. I’ve never been gay. Over-reacted and made a poor decision…” (laughter)
Abrams, also laughing, responded: “And let me just say for the record, I’m not gay either.”

Let me say this to both these raging heterosexuals: not being gay does not make you superior to me or any other gay person I know.

Then came the really wierd stuff: Carlson shared that a man once approached him for sex at a public restroom. Carlson said: “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy.. and grabbed him… and hit him against the stall, actually. And then the cops came and arrested him. But let me say that I'm the least anti-gay right-winger you'll ever meet -- but I do think doing this in men's rooms appears to be common. It's totally wrong, and they should knock it off. I mean that. I think it's -- I can't bring my son to the men's room at the park where he plays soccer because of all these creepy guys hanging around in there. I actually think it's a problem. I'm sorry. "

Watch the clip from YouTube posted below and tell me if you are not sickened. Carlson says the gay groups should disavow this kind of behavior.
Tucker, they are not endorsing it. Most gay people I know are together enough to have sex in their homes or somewhere else private. We don't need to meet people in public restrooms, we're not closeted Republican politicians living a double life.

Carlson, realizing he'd gone too far, tried to smooth things over with a back-tracking statement today:

"Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived. Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me."

OK, so after you read that statement, go back and watch the video again. Why should be listen to anything this guy has to say - ever?

This story is just beyond the pale.
Sen. Larry Craig, a Republican who has supported anti-gay legislation, was arrested back in June for disorderly conduct following an incident in the men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Craig had pleaded guilty and was hoping the arrest would go unnoticed which it did for a few months.
Despite the guilty plea, Craig said Tuesday that he did nothing "inappropriate." and said he is the victim of a "witch hunt" conducted by the Idaho Statesman newspaper.
"Let me be clear: I am not gay and never have been," said Craig, who has aligned himself with conservative groups who oppose gay rights. "In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis, because of the stress of the Idaho Statesman's investigation and the rumors it has fueled around Idaho. Again, that overreaction was a mistake, and I apologize for my misjudgment."
He added: "I should not have kept this arrest to myself, and should have told my family and friends about it. I wasn't eager to share this failure, but I should have done so anyway."
What. A. Hypocrite.

Here is Craig's VOTING RECORD on gay issues:
- Supported a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, telling his colleagues that it was "important for us to stand up now and protect traditional marriage, which is under attack by a few unelected judges and litigious activists."
- Voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages and prevents states from being forced to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples legally performed in other states.
- Opposed expanding the federal hate crimes law to cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias.
- Voted against a bill in 1996 that would have outlawed employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which failed by a single vote in the Senate.

After the jump, read an account from CNN of how the arrest went down:

Lance Bass is doing some damage control today following the New York magazine interview in which he had some unflattering things to say about NYC where he is currently on Broadway in "Hairspray."
Here is the letter Bass wrote to New York mag which he has posted on his web site:
Last week your reporter called me on my cell phone to ask me a number of questions in conjunction with my joining the cast of the Broadway hit musical Hairspray. She came to see me in the show but she didn't come to the after party so she requested an interview later.
I made the comment to her (that she recorded so there is no excuse for the misquote) that when trying to find an apartment here, the first two I looked at had no style. She reported that I said New Yorkers had no style, which I never said. What was conveniently left out was my statement that I am having a great time here, I love the city and I now plan to get a permanent residence here and be bi-coastal.
Later in the story the writer suggests that I don't hang out at Justin's restaurant. I have been to Justin's restaurant a number of times, and have taken my fellow cast members to it on many occasions as well.
I'm sorry floral print couches were reported on in my piece and nothing mentioned of this incredible musical, Hairspray, that I am in and how excited I am to be working and living among some of the greatest people on the planet.
Sincerely,
Lance Bass
Proud New Yorker

OK Star, I wanted to be positive about your new venture but you have turned me off on day one with a nauseating interview with Isaiah Washington about "second chances." You see, Star, you had seemed to have learned something from your past behavior, Isaiah has not and yet you give him this warm and fuzzy platform. Were you two even speaking English? So many metaphors...it was sickening television.
Maybe you are in over your head with this show. Where was the criminal prosecutor in you today?
To see part of the vomitfest courtesy of Queerty.com, click HERE.

The offensive Rockwell Billiards ad with the slogan "A Cue to Die For" has been yanked after pressure from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
The product bore the name of "The Sopranos" star Joseph R. Gannascoli, whose fictional gay character was beaten to death and sodomized by a pool cue.
While Gannascoli has not issued an official statement, the actor was described as “apologetic” by The Miami Herald on Tuesday when he told a reporter, “I had no idea [the pool cue] would create this sort of uproar...I’m a great supporter of the gay community.”
Says GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano: “While the violence against the character of Vito on The Sopranos was fictional, many members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have fallen victim to brutal anti-gay attacks. Rockwell Billiards has done the right thing by no longer selling a product which many deemed offensive and insensitive.”

The more Bill Richardson talk, the less I like him. I thought he gave a pretty good speech at the HRC dinner last March but it's pretty much been downhill since then. After his big faux paus at the HRC/Logo presidential forum last week, he sat down with The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld to try and do some damage control.
It seems he has an excuse for every occasion:

Click HERE to read the entire interview...I've pulled out a few questions as an appetizer...

The Advocate: What happened last night when you were asked whether being gay was a matter of choice or biology and you said that it was the former?
Richardson: I misunderstood the question, and I made a mistake in the way I answered it. I thought it was a trick question. I made a mistake and I apologize. ...I've always understood that [being gay is biological], I just haven't thought about that in a very long time. Again, I'm very action-oriented. I deal with getting things done for gay and lesbian people, as I have as a governor. And I fully understand that it's something you're born with and it's not a lifestyle choice. I've always understood that, but when you're flying all night from New Hampshire as I had—we're human too. We flew all night to get here. That shouldn't be an excuse. I am here in a symbolic visit to The Advocate to say I misunderstood the question, I handled it in a bad way, and I caused a lot of confusion. But my main message is that I should be judged by my actions, on what I've done, not words that don't accomplish anything, that had been misunderstood.

NBC execs were pretty non-chalant about hiring Isaiah Washington for at least five guest appearances on its new fall series "Bionic Woman" claming to know little about the controversy surrounding the actor's firing from "Grey's Anatomy."
This might get their attention: a TVGuide.com poll asked the following question: "Will guest star Isaiah Washington make you less inclined to watch Bionic Woman?"
Results:
Less Inclined: 71 percent
More inclined: 29 percent

I don't think that dooms the show since the poll doesn't even ask is there is anyone who doesn't care. But it's certainly worth noting. Washington is a talented actor and has his fans, but he upset a lot of people with his anti-gay slur toward co-star T.R. Knight and his post-firing behavior in recent months of deflecting all blame back onto Knight.

A TV Guide reader writes the following: "So NBC pulled Don Imus' show on MSNBC after he made a racial slur, but hired Isaiah Washington after he made a homophobic one. What a double standard! Why isn't GLAAD - or Rosie O'Donnell for that matter - challenging this?"

We'll see how this plays out. I think the show's fate will rest far more on the shoulders of the leading lady who will have to make us forget Lindsay Wagner...