GLBT Groups Should Back Sharpton's FCC Initiative

[Smarmie Doofus]

Murdoch and Delonas were practicing textbook, Nazi-like defamation on us for 20 years. Finally other demographics are showing interest in reeling them in. Now's the time for "building coalitions", seems to me.

We're always *talking* about it ( coalitions of marginalized groups, that is); so......... ?

If not now, when?



http://www.wpix.com/landing/?Sharpton-Calls-On-FCC-To-Investigate-New=1&blockID=220606&feedID=1404

Sharpton Calls On FCC To Investigate News Corp

February 23, 2009

NEW YORK (WPIX) -- Outrage and protests continue to mount over The NY Post's controversial cartoon interpreted by many as comparing President Obama to a chimpanzee that was shot and killed by police in Stamford, Connecticut last week.

Reverend Al Sharpton on Sunday called for a special City Council hearing, urging the city to refrain from advertising in The Post.

The civil rights leader, along with other local lawmakers, is also asking for the FCC to review the waiver extended to News Corp and Rupert Murdoch, which allows them to own more than one television station and newspaper in the same city.

"I think that they have sadly tried to reduce this to some personal fight than to really understand the level of offense," Sharpton said at a press conference on Sunday. "It seems that we cannot have a true level of democracy in terms of how the newspapers and airwaves are used in this city."

The New York Post issued an editorial on its website last Thursday saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, and apologized to those who were offended by it.


The chairman of the NAACP, Julian Bond, spoke out about the cartoon on Saturday, and called for the firing of both the cartoonist and the editor-in-chief of the New York Post.

"This is tastelessness taken to the extreme and its something you expect from this publication," Bond said. "But for the publication to suggest that the only people who object to it are constant critics of the New York Post is beyond ridiculous."

The editorial cartoon, which was included in Wednesday's edition of the NY Post, depicts a picture of police shooting a chimp, with the caption: "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."

The cartoon has sparked a massive debate about race relations in this country, with members of the NAACP saying they believe the cartoon is an invitation to assassinate the President.

[FreeState]

1. You will be happy to know GLBT Groups are reaching out and confronting this

http://www.glaad.org/media/release_detail.php?id=5001

February 20, 2008, New York, NY – The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation today called on media to report on New York Post editorial cartoonist Sean Delonas' history of defamatory cartoons. A cartoon appearing in the February 18, 2009 issue invokes two recent stories: a police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut and the recently passed stimulus bill. The cartoon depicts police having shot and killed a chimpanzee while making an implied reference to President Obama, saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The cartoon has sparked widespread anger and outrage, and community leaders have coordinated ongoing protests of the New York Post.

"Sean Delonas has a history of defamatory work and we stand with those who decry this recent cartoon as unacceptable and a vicious portrayal that neither enlightens nor entertains," said Neil G. Giuliano. "It's unacceptable that the New York Post continues to provide a platform for such instances of hateful defamation."

Sean Delonas has been the subject of three separate GLAAD Calls to Action for his continued juvenile and defamatory treatments of LGBT issues. This year he was named to GLAAD's "Worst Defamation of 2008" list.
GLAAD issued a Call to Action for members and an Eye on the Media to raise awareness for Delonas' history of anti-LGBT cartoons. The Eye on the Media resource, with examples of his prior defamation, is available at http://www.glaad.org/eye/seandelonaseye022009.php.

[bluedawg12]

2. Good info! Thanks FS.

I saw their previous gay hating cartoons and they are vile.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. I am happy but: Sharpton's hitting Murdoch where it hurts......

... or where it *could* hurt. At the FCC level.

Good to have a plan; it's better to have a plan that might WORK. Asking the media to report that Delonas and Murdoch have a history of GLBT defamation is a plan, but it probably will not work. Have you seen any MSM accounts of the chimpanzee fiasco that referenced the 20+ year caricatures of GLBT's in the POST? I haven't.

I only know about it because I live in NY and am periodically exposed that particular paper.

By GLAAD's own account, they've issued three separate "Calls to Action" in the past re. Delonas. Anything to show for it?

Sharpton, OTOH, has an ( admirable , in this case) instinct for the jugular and we can learn from it and, in fact, ought to be HELPING him.

Murdoch doesn't care about GLAAD's Calls to Action. He DOES care about his multiple broadcast licences and that freaking waiver that allows him to own so much of the media in this town.

Hmmmm... if I didn't know better I'd suspect that some of our local, ostensibly gay-friendly pols were instrumental in getting that waiver and getting those license renewals.

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

4. absogoddamnlutely- k&r