Chris Connelly

How the Media Legitimized Perez Hilton, Cyber-Bully Extraordinaire

Perez HiltonPerez Hilton has proved that demonstrable talent or skill is no longer a prerequisite for fame. These days, all that's needed is a proclivity for peddling the sleaziest material imaginable.

Hilton created a career for himself out of enhancing paparazzi shots of celebrities with crude white drawings of genitalia and bodily fluids and posting them on his blog, PerezHilton.com. He regularly described young actresses in the most misogynistic terms imaginable, relentlessly attempted to bring gay celebrities out of the closet and reserved a special brand of hate for conservative women, such as referring to "The View's" Elisabeth Hasselbeck as "Elisab----" or re-posting lesbian comedian Margaret Cho's graphic oral sex fantasy about Sarah Palin. As a reward, his Web site reportedly receives 24 - 30 million views per month.

The mainstream media aided Hilton's rise to the top of culture corrupters. Since 2006, he has been the focus of 49 television news reports. He has been cited as an "expert" on all things related to Hollywood in 32 news stories. The Los Angeles Times recently labeled the blogger a "tastemaker."

Reporter to ‘Idol’s’ Lambert: ‘Are You Bi-Curious?’

Adam Lambert of American Idol gave his first interview to ABC's 20/20 last Friday night. The main subject of the interview was Lambert's homosexuality. Lambert explained that, "It's surprising because I don't think twice about, for example, my sexuality. I've been living this way the whole time I've been here in L.A. for the past eight years. It's a funny reminder that not everybody is as comfortable with it as I am."

After a surprising loss to Kris Allen, Adam Lambert has managed to stay in the spotlight. Throughout the competition Lambert's sexuality had been debated and discussed relentlessly, and he has made the most of it. Lambert explained that "It feels really good cause I think there was a lot of speculation and talk ... And it feels really good to just kind of state the facts and move forward. Not keep wondering about, what does he do, you know? With whom?"

This unburdening came complete with a picture of Lambert kissing another man.

ABC Reporter: Did Friends Mock 'Jesus Freak' Anne Rice?

"Good Morning America" correspondent Chris Connelly talked with horror novelist, turned religious fiction writer, Anne Rice on Thursday about how friends reacted to her becoming a "Jesus freak." Though the interview was a friendly one, Connelly did ask, in a jovial tone, what it was like when friends said, "'Oh, my gosh. She's out of her mind. Oh, no. Look, she's become a 'Jesus freak.'"

Now, he did attempt to distance himself from the phrase "Jesus freak" by using air quotes, but would any reporter employ a similar term when dealing with a member of another faith? Continuing the over-the-top "conversation" that Connelly assumed people had with her, he imagined, "'She's gone over to the bright side. Where is our empress of vampiric alienation?'"

Essay: The Jurassic Press Finally Acknowledge Bias

Unfortunately, it is not what you think

NewsBusters.org | Media Research Center
Sorely Displeased
It seems it all depends on who is doing the asking.

ABC News spent a good portion of last week's morning programming in deep prostration and self-analysis in response to criticism that their journalistic presentation suffered from partiality.

Could it be? Had we at the Media Research Center (MRC) -- after twenty-one years of protracted press analysis and serial and sober exposition of liberal bias in all manner of broadcast and print reporting -- finally saturated the consciousness of a member of the Network Big Three?

Sadly, no.