An openly gay city council candidate is targeted by malicious campaign literature suggesting he may be a pedophile and subsequently loses his bid for alderman.
It's the type of story highlighting bigotry and homophobia that the mainstream media would love to trumpet and it happened just days ago in the 2009 city elections in Annapolis, Md.
Unfortunately for Scott Bowling, he's a Republican in the liberal capital city of Maryland.
Aside from coverage in the Annapolis Capital and the Baltimore Sun's Maryland Politics blog, a Google News search and Nexis searches of the AP wire, major newspapers, and network transcripts revealed no coverage of the story in the mainstream media:
Story Continues Below Ad ↓A candidate for Annapolis alderman says he will file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s office after an anonymous racist and homophobic flier criticizing his candidacy began circulating last weekend.
The flier, addressed to the “Friends and Supporters of Black Annapolis,” was distributed in public housing developments in Ward 3, where Republican Scott Bowling, who is white, is challenging the Democratic incumbent Classie Hoyle, who is African-American.
The flier states that Bowling “will be a danger to us all and our children,” and makes references to the “risk of sexual assault,” and says that Bowling is “white and gay,” and “wants to push for a pro gay agenda at City Hall.”
“It’s racial, bigoted and prejudiced and this has no place in Annapolis politics,” said Bowling, 38, a mortgage banker.
The flier also compares Bowling, who is openly gay, to Samuel E. Shropshire, the alderman who has been accused of fondling a male midshipman.
Given Annapolis's proximity to Washington, D.C., it's hard to believe that this story would not come to the attention of editors at the Washington Post or the bureau chiefs for the cable news networks in D.C. Yet although the Post has a Maryland Politics blog, the Bowling controversy has not even been covered in that lightly-trafficked portion of the Post's Web page, much less given ink in the dead tree edition.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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How Queer...
November 5, 2009 - 15:46 ET by scarebear83Sorry I couldn't resist :P
__________
Shazbot!
And, of course, the people
November 5, 2009 - 16:13 ET by FeynmanFanAnd, of course, the people who did this to Bowling would be the first to scream discrimination if someone said something like this about a black person.
"Reason and persuasion are the only practical instruments against error. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged" - Thomas Jefferson
What part of this story do the MSM not want to touch?
November 5, 2009 - 16:28 ET by CO2MakerNo, not that part!
The black opposition to the white candidate?
The fact that the candidate is openly gay?
Or that he is a Republican?
Now, careful analysis would lead one to these conclusions:
1. Being gay while being a Republican should be a major meme for the screaming mimis in the MSM.
2. Being while while being a Republican? No news here. Move on.
3. Did I mention he's gay? Could be a pedophile, just to be on the safe side. And he's a Republican, too. That's newsworthy, because Democrats don't do that (except the governor of N.J., but that's old news). They just have kids out of wedlock, burn crosses in potential constituents' front yards, and drive off bridges while not intoxicated with a woman he's not planning to make a sandwich of with another politician.
I use to live there and
November 5, 2009 - 18:10 ET by gmaniac1I use to live there and those are some of smarmiest liberals you'll ever see. My brother worked at this bar called Harry Browne's. I'm not sure if it's still there but it was on Church Circle in downtown Annapolis.
On State Circle, actually,
November 5, 2009 - 23:37 ET by Ken ShepherdOn State Circle, actually, but yeah, it's still there. Never been there myself though.