Have you written to the WaPo about the shameful advert they ran?

[Maven]

I'm curious to know if anyone has written to the Post about the disgusting anti-gay insert they ran last week. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, you can read about it here.

I'm writing a letter to them later tonight.

[arizuma]

1. I read it and passed

It's a free country. Better to let the rats be seen than go underground.

[Turn CO Blue]

2. But my question is, is the WaPo PROFITING off of this ad?

That just scummy if they are.

It's one thing to have freedom of speech (and bigotry) in the (free) editorial section, but quite another for them to profit off the sale of ad-space and 4-color printing of this kind of hate-speech.

[arizuma]

3. One man's golden tongue

is another man's hate speech. FWIW

GREAT MOVIE QUOTES

"My first wife was second cook at a third rate joint on fourth street."

Willaim Bendix in "LIFEBOAT"
Alfred Hitchcock

[iverglas]

4. fwiw?

Not worth much, I'd say. Platitudes and self-evident truisms.

Freedom of speech, blah blah.

The fact that one is free to say something -- or to reap a profit by selling the medium in which to say it -- does not mean that one HAS TO do so, or that it is either reasonable or decent to do so.

And it certainly doesn't mean that anyone one else isn't equally free to state an opinion about what was said, or to decline to patronize the profiteers who benefited from the sale of the medium for saying it. Not, of course, that I suggest you were saying such a thing. What you did say, however, implied that criticism of the Post is unwarranted, and that's not exactly the kind of comment that encourages the free expression of opinions, or contributes to a climate in which opinions are freely expressed.

EVERYBODY KNOWS that "it's a free country" and that "one man's <sic> etc." What earthly point is there in muttering them in response to an expression of opinion??

You did start by expressing an actual opinion in response to the opinion expressed:

"Better to let the rats be seen than go underground."

I wouldn't respond to *that* opinion by saying "one person's rat is another person's pet hamster". I'd say that I disagree with your position, and state my reasons.

Your comments are contradictory. If the whole point of freedom of speech is to let the rats be seen for what they are, is it not somewhat important for someone to point out what they are? Is the marketplace of ideas not where ideas are discussed, and not merely where opinions are stated and left unchallenged?? Is there really no point to it all beyond seeing one's opinions in lights?

[Zep]

8. Even a "liberal" paper ...

... is basically a manufactured product that is intended to make a profit.

And most revenue comes from advertizing not paid circulation. But you have to have paid circulation to sell advertizing, so it's a fine line.

Color inserts are the most profitable of all.

[justin899]

10. Oh please

You know and I know that a hit piece on any other minority would NOT be published in the WP.

If someone wanted to do a hate-filled insert (made up to look like Parade Magazine and legitimate "news") attacking Affirmative Action with all kinds of lies the Post would never agree to run it.

So get off this idiotic "free speech" nonsense where hate speech is involved.

Lies gone unchallenged become truth.

[Zep]

11. I'm not talking about "free speech" or "hate speech"

They are in business to make money.

Wave enough money in their faces and they would publish a KKK rant.

[Maven]

12. No, they wouldn't.

Reality check.

[Winamericaback]

5. They must be

They only report the news for profit and to sell advertising. If this is an insert then its advertising.

But with free speech and all there really isn't anything that can be done about it. We can complain about the topic of choice and ask nicely that the Post doesn't do this again but you cannot prevent it.

[Maven]

7. We don't disagree.

I'm not saying we should pass legislation to prevent it, but there's nothing wrong with condemning the Post in profiting (as Iverglas said) from insidious, sugar-coated bigotry. First of all, by printing it, they implicitly lent their own legitimacy as a well-respected news source to this trash. Secondly, no one here would impugn the right to free speech, but remember, this is the same newspaper that just last week cancelled a comic strip because it made a tasteless joke. More to the point: can you imagine the Post printing an advertising section that attacked any other minority in this way? Because I can't. So I think that applying pressure and letting them know that readers were offended by their mixed-up priorities is absolutely called-for.

[Flammable Materials]

14. Solution: Approach WaPo With A GLBT "Rebuttal" Insert

I do think Washington Post exercised a lack of judgment by accepting the ad. But instead of cutting off the nose to spite the face, why not ask WaPo to accept a GLBT-friendly rebuttal insert? The answer to negative speech is more speech.

If they say "no", then rip them a new one.

[davidinalameda]

6. but if they piss off enough subscribers and other advertisers

then this crap won't happen again

and I do agree--we need to keep the light on these cockroaches and don't let them scamper back into the shadows

look what happened to Germany--people didn't realize the danger that the Nazis posed until it was too late

we need to expose these "Christians" for the fascists they truly are

[renaissanceguy]

9. I suggest people do this:

We should write, e-mail, fax, or whatever... facts that debunk their logic. They refer to "studies" without citation. I know it won't change their mind, but they shouldn't have the last word.

Let's debunk that piece of trash.

[Ian David]

13. I find it more satisfying to subscribe them to porn sites

[Bertha Venation]

15. No, and I don't intend to.

Surely the Post sells ad space to many, many other groups that espouse and/or support things we liberals abhor. The Post, like all big newspapers, is a business first.

Besides: "Such hatred grows when hidden from view. It needs darkness to grow. Exposure to the light of freedom and to the hearts of people who shun the ideas such bigotry espouses will surely cause the evil that is hate to wilt and die." (K.J. Farmer, LTTE of the Knoxville News-Sentinel)

[Chovexani]

16. Disgusting insert

And one that, as usual, completely denies the existence of LGBT black folk. Ironic considering how integral a role we have played in the black church down through the years.

I wonder what these assholes think of Bayard Rustin, then? Without him the March on Washington probably wouldn't have happened.

[Gay Green]

17. That insert was BEYOND disgusting

And the fascists want to divide the African-American community from us!

[Chovexani]

18. Welcome to DU

:hi:

I'm starting to feel Green myself after all this nonsense...