AB: Let’s talk about the Democrats and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I understand you were a Hillary Clinton supporter during the primary season. How are you feeling about – I’ve been reading your work on Huffington Post congratulating Hillary for backing Obama, but how are you feeling really about this?
HR: I supported Hillary for a reason – I thought she would make a better general election candidate and I’m a long time admirer, but I think the transition to supporting Obama is easy in comparison to John McCain, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come without some emotion. But I’m so impressed with the campaign Obama’s run, the discipline he’s shown, the tactics and strategies they’ve used and I’m pretty excited about this election. I’m pretty hopeful.
AB: From what you’re hearing – are you seeing people falling into line behind Obama?
HR: I think that people will support Obama. Some of them are taking their time, but I just don’t think McCain is an option. It’s unfathomable to me that people will see him as an option.
AB: Let’s get back to media. Do you think – what’s your take on allegations that the media was biased against Hillary Clinton and the sexism in reports?
HR: Well, I’m a part of the media now, so in some respects I leave it for others to determine whether a bias affected the race, but I think there’s no question that she was subjected to a level of sexism that no other candidate faced, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Obama could have been subjected to a level of racism that no other candidate faced. I don’t have any patience for folks who argue over whether the sexism was worse or if the racism was worse. It’s sort of a victims’ competition. Having said that, the fact that she was female and that female putdowns were much more often used against her in and by the media and than racial putdowns, or have ever been used before.
AB: Well, also, I think sexist putdowns could be more subtle than racist putdowns. The keywords don’t flash as much…
HR: But, again, I don’t think it’s a – look, millions of women who felt this can’t be wrong. We hear things based upon a lifetime of slights and therefore we hear them differently often than men do. Similarly, millions of African-Americans who felt and heard slights can’t be wrong. They heard them and felt them based upon a lifetime of experiences with such views. I think Hillary lost because her campaign ended up not being quite as good as she was, but she’s responsible for that. But hearing the sexism and experiencing it was disturbing.
AB: Do you remember a time in your adulthood that you were told you couldn’t do something because you were a woman?
HR: Oh, sure.
AB: Does it happen often?
HR: Well, I was in the music business for eighteen years. There’s no question that women in the music business had a harder time than men, that women in the music business didn’t earn as much as men did, that they weren’t taken as seriously – I was in a business that was supposed to be as contemporary as any and I experienced it. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the waitress in the diner or the woman on Wall Street. Sexism just exists. It is real.
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What did she have to say about suing/extorting money from random people off the internet that the RIAA accused of copying music?
No one should ever boast of working for the RIAA. It's like bragging about be a member of the mafia.
Fuck the RIAA. I'm a budding recording engineer, and seeing it all from the inside is doubly noxious.
Wow, softball with Hillary Rosen.
Question if Rosen reads this.
Why did you bash Hillary the day after the last vote? She didn't give her concession speech in what YOU percieved the alloted time? Perhaps she wanted to wait and give the amazing speech she gave….but NOOOOOOOO….you had to throw the lady under the fucking bus because she wasn't working on your schedule or any of the other pussy pundits that you work with. That is called
a hypocritic traitor.
Also, why is it that Huffington Post has kicked off so many Clinton supporters? You were part of that. The Arrianna Huffington power play. That is called censorship.
Lastly, have you or anyone in your family downloaded a song? Are you happy that poor college students and grandmothers received heavy fines so the wealthy could get wealthier? That is not very kind my lady. That is called dictatorship.
The RIAA are the biggest crooks in the county and you owe the world an apology for having innocent people have to struggle with the law while you and your partner sit on your high horse in judgement.
Andrew, honey, if you are going to interview these people, you have to ask the serious questios and not just kiss their fucking ass because they know Rachel Maddow.
This woman has don't a god damned thing for the gay community other than take our money.
You should get together with Andrew Sullivan and rule your own little world.
I just have to mention this last quote that is so full of irony coming from a woman that had this exact sort of woman threatened with jail because
(on a budget) she downloaded a song for her grandchild.
——————-
I can’t imagine what it’s like for the waitress in the diner or the woman on Wall Street. Sexism just exists. It is real.
———————–
Hilary always makes me think of something Molly Ivins used to say: Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.
Ah yes, the woman who single handedly destroyed the entire recording industry. If you're going to call yourself a "journalist," why don't you ask some real questions?
Here is a question for Hillary Rosen that I bet will never be answered. How do you feel about the hundreds of low to middle class folks, elderly, students, disabled and those on a fix budget…about making them out to be criminals and forcing them to pay hefty fines or sending them to jail..as in this story………..
the jury found Jammie Thomas, a single mother from Minnesota, liable for willful copyright infringement and awarded the RIAA plaintiffs $222,000 — that's $9,250 for each of the 24 songs she was alleged to have made available on Kazaa, for those of you keeping track at home, and probably something like, oh, say, $222,000 more than she should have had to pay, since the RIAA plaintiffs weren't required to show that Thomas had a file-sharing program installed on her machine or that she was even the person using the Kazaa account in question
——————————————
This was not an interview, it was a nice chat.
I am sure she will check out this blog…so answer up girl.
^^^ Don't hold your breath expecting her to explain herself. She's made a career as Washington insider, falling upwards, enabled by fawning "interviews" like this one.
I understand some of the criticism being thrown her way, but why question the topics the interviewer chose to cover? It's not like there was any obligation to start asking her about every RIAA-related thing under the sun. That's not what the article was about.
pay for your downloads, fags
Fredo
You may be right. If that is the case why didn't they ask..
What is your favorite color Hillary?
If you were a tree what would you be?
Do you use both shampoo and conditioner?
Do you have the slightest understanding how beautiful you are?
Pssssh.
The questions they asked were relevant. Also, I know you were being facetious, but I don't think Hilary is all that bad-looking. If she were thinner + had her same features, she'd be even prettier.
I'm apalled you give this woman a forum. There are plenty of gay activists out there who *haven't* spent years destroying the rights of consumers at the behest of big media. This is the woman who's legal bulldog work killed legal p2p.
The federal government thinks they have a right to inspect anything coming in or out of your computer, and it's largely this woman's fault for selling the big-media agenda to congress and getting them to write anti-consumer laws.
Well, this being a gay blog and no mention of the HRC came up in the interview, there's no reason to think that they're going to delve into the RIAA questions.
Personally, I think she left a disgraceful mark on the record industry, essentially shoving aside technology and innovation in the name of rights. When in reality, the artists and publishers actually making the music suffered while the labels sat back and cried foul.
Someone should tell Hilary that sexism is different for the waitress in the diner and the woman on Wall Street. Equally bad? probably. The same? hardly.
I worked in the music industry when Rosen was at RIAA. The people on this site don't know the same facts that people knew then. Rosen left RIAA literally the day before the first lawsuits against individuals were filed. She had already announced her retirement but she didn't agree with them and wanted to make sure they weren't done on her watch.
I don't care what any of you say. Hilary Rosen is hot!!!