Our Wonderful Media
Posted by Phoenix Woman on August 28, 2007
What would you think would be bigger news — and hit the press quicker?
– A congressman (Bob Filner) lipping off to and pushing airport security personnel, OR:
– A male Senator (Larry Craig) caught trying to solicit sex from a male undercover cop in an airport bathroom known as a meeting-place for sex trysts?
The Filner (Democrat) altercation happened on August 19 and was national news within hours. The Craig (Republican) incident occurred June 11, and I and the rest of the world are only hearing about it now — even though stories about the gay-bashing conservative Republican Craig’s penchant for airport sex with men have been circulating online and elsewhere for a while. (And the Idaho Statesman is good enough to admit that Mike Rogers’ BlogActive story is what started their own yearlong probe of Craig’s behavior — a probe whose fruits were kept from us until now by the paper’s timidity in the face of likely legal action on the part of Craig and Craig’s deep-pocketed backers.)
Oh, and will the oh-so-aggressively-hetero pundits currently fangirling Mitt Romney (in a perfectly hetero manner, mind you) keep it up now that Mitt’s biggest ally (and — until recently — Senate liaison for Romney’s campaign, as this abruptly zapped YouTube video showed) has been caught trying to solicit illicit man-nookie? Fangirling is OK with them only so long as they don’t, you know, actually brush hands openly with gayness.
I’d been wondering what sort of news the Gonzales resignation was timed to smother or at least minimize. This may have been it. Though even the conbloggers say that he’s toast — and conblogger Patrick Ruffini’s listed several possible replacements for him as Senator. (Of course, he could just decide not to run again — he’s up for reelection next year, and hasn’t said if he plans to run for another term.)
