They may not know who will be their nominee, but the Democratic National Committee has already started compiling their press for this summer’s convention.
As part of their effort to include homo-journos, the DNC accredited two explicitly gay blogs: Pam’s House Blend, which is penned by a black lesbian from North Carolina, and a New York-based blog: Towleroad, which is run by a white man.
And the latter has Bil Browning over at fellow applicant Bilerico not only a bit bitter, but downright confused:
Towleroad is not known for racial diversity, trans inclusion, or its lesbian audience. It is a site for wealthy gay white men – the HRC demographic.
…
When was the last time you saw serious in-depth political coverage on Towleroad or committed coverage of an issue from multiple angles or guest posts from members of Congress and Presidential candidates?
…
Towleroad has a niche – upperclass white gay men; it’s not that diverse. Maybe there are too many letters for the DNC to spell LGBT. When we first launched, Alex would often use the line, “Not everything queer is marriage, martinis and Madonna.” Maybe we should have stuck with the big 3 Ms after all.
Ouch!
victor
since when is the act of reading putting people into a demographic? the web is word on an electronic page. the beauty is that ANYONE can read what they like. though i may skim comments on the free republic website doesn’t make me a republican.
vince
I may be a gay, white male, but I’m definitely not rich, or even upper class. I’m more like poor, lower middle class. Andy and Pam are my main blogs. Bilerico is just not a very good site.
jbran
Sure, the audience is shallow, but Towleroad is a pretty well-written blog.
Jack Scribe
Guilty as charged. I may be ‘shallow’, but I also donate funds to GLBT-friendly candidates. Andy’s Towlerroad is well-written and very inclusive.
Matt
Don’t forget the other M on Towleroad, Mario Lopez. Everytime he shits he is on there lol. Oh and Michael Phelps too.
Matt
Oh and Michael Lucas
Ted B. (Charging Rhino)
Err, who’s this “Bilerico”?
I swear the Dhimnicrats have the most suicidal urges when it comes to “diversity”, …get over it! “Gay” doesn’t always have to slavishly include the lesbians, or for that matter the whole “B-T-I-x-y-z” litany.
david
I am not white, and I’m not upperclass (I may have recently spent far too much money on a set of Prada shades, but whatever). I am a Latino guy who has read Towleroad daily for the past couple of years. I have had disagreements with some of the coverage on Andy’s site (for instance, his clear pro-Obama stance), but I find his blog to be the best-written, most interesting, most consistently intelligent, and most relevant gay blog on the net (sorry Queerty).
Darth Paul
Does it really matter? Competition for the token attention and graces of one of the most corrupt and past-due organizations (the GOP is, of course, the greater evil, but whatev) isn’t much to be proud of. If you cut through the uninspiring hype, you’ll find after the hoopla that we remain yet another minority whose vote is taken for granted.
Charlotte
Well I attended the 2004 convention & the Dems were afraid to use the G-word. 🙂 I don’t think this convention is going to be much better. We’ll just have to dish them from the sidelines. 🙂
Speed Reader
Andy’s a hack. He is not a writer, but more of a content editor. For example, Watch his RSS feed and watch vs. gay gossip message board Datalounge’s time stamps, and you’ll see the stories trickle in just after they’re posted on DL.
And while I am clear that many of you love his editorial choices, there are far, far, far more gay political blogs that are deserving of this plum position. At least we know we’ll get some critical thinking from Pam.
Ryan
That critique may have had teeth, if not for the fact that Pam’s Blend is as inclusive as it gets. Towleroad just happens to be one of the most successful and popular GLBT blogs out there – that’s why it got access. This isn’t a controversy at all, it actually makes sense.
CAm
Ok, so let me get this straight. They already have a lesbian blogger, so since the other guy is all about niches, lets say that the lesbians are represented. Additionally, the author of that blog is African American so lets say that that blogger is representing both African Americans and Lesbians. Is he saying that since white and latino gay men most likely represent 80-90% of the remaining demographic of that gay community. That the Dem party should ignore that gigantic group, with a history of donating in favor of a blog representing Transgendered or sexually ambigious radical fairies? Is that guy for real?
andrew
I personally agree with the last two comments. Glad to know I’m not the only one who sees RSS repetition. But, that said, the DNC’s smart in enlisting his toe-the-line approach. When was the last time he took on the organization’s gay placating? Or, for that matter, stated any concrete opinion on – well, anything?!
andrew
PS: Guess why I chose that image?
Matt
Could someone explain this RSS thing to me?
Speed Reader
Video: RSS in plain English:
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
Matt
Thanks Speed. I appreciate it.
tofer david
towleroad is and has been in the tank for obama all along. unfortunately he acts like the rest of the liberal media and ignores any relevant investigation of obama. that is not journalism it is the beginning of fascism.
James Greenlee
Towleroad is for rich ggys, really? I’m a big fan of the site, and I’ve never been rich. It’s true that there isn’t a TON of original content, but there is definitely an attitude, and what is original is almost always interesting. It’s certainly got a lot more heart than something like The Drudge Report. There’s something sour-grapey going on here.
And this talk of “in the tank for Obama” is strange too. If that is true, it would seem that DailyKos, AmericaBlog, Democratic Underground–in truth most liberal sites I’ve seen–are in the tank too. I keep wondering where the “in the tank for Hillary” sites are. But she’s dunzo, so what difference does it make now?
hell's kitchen guy
Who cares? The conventions are the most canned, scripted non’news events of the year. nobody pays atention to them anymore except the pundits on the all-news channels and the 15 people who watch them.
hisurfer
Not really, HKG. What you see on the tv is canned and scripted, to be sure. There’s a fair amount of real work that goes on behind the scenes involving platform writing and positioning. Whether the platform actually means anything is another matter. I do know a lot of groups that try to attend to get their issues on the overall Democratic agenda – and the original reason for having super-delegates was to moderate some of the more narrow interest groups.
brijcorns
First off, I find it upsetting that goodasyou.org didn’t get included, but whatev.
Second, this convention might actually decide who the nominee will officially be, so I figure it might have some importance this go ’round.