Tag Archives: Huffington Post

Wil Wheaton aka Wesley Crusher To The Huffington Post: Pay Your Damn Contributors You Cheap Bastards!

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Wil Wheaton vs HuffPo

 

Actor and Geek Icon Wil Wheaton went to town on the Huffington Post yesterday after HuffPo reached out to Wheaton and asked to print one of his stories for free of course, because it would give him “exposure”.  This is the same scam the the media giant has used since its inception while reaping in millions upon millions of dollars of profit every year,

Well Wil Wheaton was having none of it:

I’m very lucky to not need exposure or “reach” or anything like that, at least not right now and not this way. I’m also very lucky to be able to walk away from things like this because I believe it’s the right thing to do. If I’d offered this to Huffington Post for nothing, because I hoped they’d publish it, that would be an entirely different thing, because it was my choice.

I don’t know what the going rate is for something like this. At six cents a word, which is SFWAs lowest professional rate for short fiction (not a perfect comparison, but at least something to reference that’s similar), it would be $210. That’s not nothing, but it’s not house payment money. Maybe I should have just taken their fabulous offer of exposure?

I don’t think so, because it’s the principle of the thing. Huffington Post is valued at well over fifty million dollars, and the company can absolutely afford to pay contributors. The fact that it doesn’t, and can get away with it, is distressing to me.

The exchange I had with this editor wasn’t unpleasant, and I know that she’s doing what her bosses tell her to do. I don’t blame her for the company policy. If I’d brought this to Huffington Post and asked the site to publish it, it would be an entirely different situation, I think, (I already posted it on my Medium account, anyway), but this is one of those “the line must be drawn here” things for me. I don’t know if I made the right call, but I do feel good about standing on principle, and having an opportunity to rant a little bit about why I did.

Although I am aquantances with two of Huff Po  major players;  Noah Michealson, Executive Editor of Gay Voices at The Huffington Post and Michelangelo Signorile HuffPo’s Gay Voices Editor-at-Large I 100% agree with Wheaton and have said the same thing for years. I will go even 1 step further and say that Huffington Post helped kill the blogosphere.  (Well the gay one anyway.)  And while HuffPo refuses to even pay a stipend to its “citizen journalists” unfortunately they are not alone and this situation is not unique.  Many popular “blogs”, ranging from Daily Kos to Hot Air to Talking Points Memo do the same thing.  But NONE of these sites make over 30 million dollars a year in profit.  And as for “reach” and “exposure” lets face you are not going to be offered a job from another website or even at HuffPo no matter how much content excellent content you create and send to them for free.

To quote Los Angeles Times’s Tim Rutten “To grasp The Huffington Post’s business model picture a galley rowed by slaves and commanded by pirates.” And its well past time for the slaves to revolt.

Don;t give your work away.  If HuffPo won’t pay open up your Blog again.  Fewer people may see it.  But at least you’ll make a few bucks in ads, have only your own guideline and won’t be supporting a culture where the top makes money off the backs of people working for free.  

Or maybe just maybe the Huffington Post is Republican. Who knew?

 

Wil Wheaton 2

 

 

 

BREAKING: NOM Loses Major Part Of It’s Lawsuit Against the Internal Revenue Service

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Bryan Brown evil

 

Today the judge in this matter of the National Organization for Marriages lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for leaking NOM’s 2009 – 990 tax return hit a major set-back as the judge hearing the case  has concluded that the IRS’s disclosure, if there was one since it had never been proved of NOM’c confidential 2008 donor schedule as neither willful nor gross negligence. Which will rule out punitive damages that the anti-gay hate group might have received.

In April 2012, the Huffington Post and the Human Rights Campaign,  posted NOM tax documents indicating GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney had given $10,000 to the anti-gay marriage group.  Unfortunately this also happened while the GOP witch-hunt and targeting the IRS in behalf of Tea Party groups who were being investigated for worthiness of non-profit status. (Which many were not.)

Smelling the possibility of some money and publicity NOM’s President Brian Brownshirt  jumped on the teabagistan bandwagon declaring that the IRS leaked their returns (despite the fact that the forms there were pictured showed have no IRS markings) and filed a lawsuit claiming that it was all “a chilling set of circumstances that should ring alarm bells across the nation.”

*cough * Drama Queen *cough*

With the judges ruling and also an additional ruling of dismissing the unlawful inspection claim  the issue remaining for trial is NOM’s actual damages as a result of this disclosure. 

Which will probably be nothing.

H/T to David Cary Hart of The Slowly Boiled Frog

 

Huffington Post Publishes Transphobic Article: “Who’s Got That Tranny Look?”

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Coming right on the heels of its debut of HuffPo’s new Gay Voices section.  On November 3, the Huffington Post published a grossly transphobic article asking readers to determine which female celebrity actress “has got the more ‘tranny’ look.”

The article – which appeared in Huffington Post’s Style section and was written by Ellie Krupnick  she uses the terms “tranny” and “transvestite” – both derogatory ways to describe transgender people. In a twisted attempt to appear civil, Krupnick even assures both actresses that, unlike “transvestites,” they are “gorgeous” and shouldn’t take the poll personally.

If Huffington Post sweriously wants to build a LGBT audience this is certainly NOT the way to do it.

Ellie Krupnick should never be allowed to write for HuffPo again. 

Source: Equality Matter

GLAAD is Calling Out Huffington Post for Anti-Gay Stereotyping

Gay News From Around The Globe, ,

Liberal Corporate news site Huffington Post has landed itself in hot water with GLAAD over a recent front page post entitled “Sex For Tuition: Gay Students Using ‘Sugar Daddies’ To Pay Off Loan Debt.” GLAAD calls the post “one of the most trite, stereotype-peddling articles we’ve seen in a long time. And they’re standing behind it.”

The author [Amanda Fairbanks] quotes someone as saying these gay students “used the money to afford the extravagant and often lavish gay lifestyle,” while another said, “In the gay scene, all you really have is your age or your money.” Fairbanks herself writes, “Unlike in the straight world, many say they find working as an escort on the gay scene to be an accepted, even applauded practice.” Another person tells her, “The gay community were really the first to embrace the sugar lifestyle, even more so than the straight community.” She interviewed yet another person who told her that he “finds the gay culture more accepting of one-night stands and casual relationships.”

The “gay culture.”

The “gay scene.”

The “extravagant and often lavish gay lifestyle.”

The community embraces the “sugar lifestyle.”

These are not phrases that should appear in any piece of responsible journalism (that’s not debunking them as myths) let alone one published by an outlet that frequently publishes positive and affirming stories about the true diversity of the LGBT community. But this article doesn’t stop at just presenting the “gay scene” as a single-minded monolith – it also claims that this gay monolith supports prostitution.

Read the post from GLAAD.org then sign the petition.

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »


Sam Stein Wonders If Obama And The Democrats Should Be Worried About Growing GOP Support for Gays? – NOT HARDLY. They Should Be Worried They Are Losing Our Votes Because They Suck!

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Journalist Sam Stein, a featured writer over at Huffington Post today wrote an article questioning weather Obama be concerned about the growing number of Republicans that are to the left of him on gay marriage and similar issues.

…a prominent Democratic consultant got in touch with the Huffington Post to make the case that the Obama administration risks losing the gay rights community (or at least depressing their votes) with its tepid embrace of their priorities.

“I think they have been put in a tough place by these conservatives and they should be,” the consultant said. “There are a whole group of people who are to the left of them on gay rights. And they are Republicans. It should make them feel uncomfortable.”

LBGT voters are not, of course, monolithic. And on a host of other fronts, they are repulsed by the GOP’s policies. Talk about abandoning Obama and the Democrats, in some respects, has been driven more by a desire to scare the party into action than sincere intent to vote Republican.

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for an electoral shift to take place or that there aren’t those in the GOP who welcome siphoning off the LBGT vote

I’ve seen a lot of these articles over the past few days and you have to wonder what the media is doing?  And why they are writing such crap. 

Should Obama and the Democrats be worried about the LGBT Vote?  HELL YES!  Will the Republicans gain LGBT Voters?  HELL NO!
There is really no need to even pull Republicans into question.  The “”There are a whole group of people who are to the left of them on gay rights. And they are Republicans”.  Really?  Like who?  I mean really?  Sure some are softening their stance now that there are elections coming up.  but we all know that’s bullshit and is being done just to get some votes. And after the election day these Republicans will be right back to their gay-hating ways.  I would sincerely hope that nobody in our LGBT Tribe would be stupid enough to believe and vote Republican.

As for Obama and the Democrats the LGBT Votes were theirs to lose.  And they did.  “Talk about abandoning Obama and the Democrats, in some respects, has been driven more by a desire to scare the party into action than sincere intent to vote Republican.” You just keep telling yourself that Sammy boy.  Most of us are gone and have stopped sending money, and defending Obama and the Democrats because why in the world should we defend them if they are not going to defend us?

As for voting Republican.  No worries there.  What will happen is that we probably just won;t vote at all.  Or just selectively for extremely gay friendly single candidates.  The days of the LGBT Community voting along party lines IS OVER.

I won’t be voting Republican for many reasons other than gay rights. No, I won’t be voting Democrat because of that party’s pathetic record on advancing gay rights.

Republicans hate us actively

Democrats hate us passively.

And right now WE HATE YOU BOTH.