In today’s media, patriotic conventions are embarrassing....but pride the promotion of homosexuality (and bisexuality, and transgenderism) is the new fad. I've seen reporters who won't put their hands on their hearts or recite the Pledge of Allegiance at events, because that wouldn't be objective. But the same people who eschew patriotism or ban flag pins on camera openly wave the rainbow flag on their websites or sponsor gay-pride events. The leader in this effort seems to be Comcast/NBC Universal.
Among “major sponsors” of San Francisco’s pride parade was Comcast’s Xfinity internet service provider. Comcast’s Telemundo is a “silver sponsor” of New York’s pride events. Telemundo and the local NBC-owned and operated station WTVJ-6 sponsored Miami Beach Gay Pride. The NBC-owned and operated station KNBC-4 in Los Angeles was a “supporting sponsor” of the L.A. pride parade, alongside “media sponsors” like the Los Angeles Times, Univision, Yahoo, Netflix, Showtime, and The Walt Disney Company.
The D.C. pride events were "platinum" sponsored by the local ABC station WJLA-7 and NewsChannel 8, both owned by the "conservative" broadcaster Sinclair. In 2012, ex-ABC News president David Westin explained ABC’s ban on flag pins: “we'd long had a policy at ABC News that we wouldn't let people wear any lapel pins of any sort, the theory being that when you're reporting the news, you should be reporting the news, not taking a position.” NBC/MSNBC seemed to skip flag pins on air, at least when cheeky liberals checked.
We are not talking about "news" outlets like BuzzFeed, which openly tout their floats in the gay pride parade and declare that the conservative side is not a side. We're talking about outlets still posing as objective.
Actually, NBC Universal boasted on June 29 about all its gay-pride activism, in America and abroad:
Pride festivities kicked off in Singapore as NBCUniversal International sponsored Pink Dot Singapore, a non-profit movement aimed at promoting an inclusive LGBT community. The company also signed a multi-year sponsorship for Pride in London, which drew an estimated 40,000 participants this past week.
In the U.S., a number of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations participated in parades throughout the country. In New York, NBC 4 New York, Telemundo 47, and NBC Entertainment’s “Hairspray LIVE!” sponsored New York City’s 46th Annual Pride March, which included a record-breaking 30,000 participants, and drew a crowd of 1.6 million spectators. In addition, NBC Sports hosted an Olympics-themed photo station at the Connecticut Pride Festival in Fairfield County.
In Los Angeles, NBC4 Southern California and NBC Entertainment’s “Hairspray LIVE!” sponsored the Annual LA Pride Parade. The 47th Annual Chicago Pride Parade was sponsored by NBC 5 Chicago and Telemundo Chicago along with Comcast Xfinity. NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations in Philadelphia and Miami also had similar celebrations. NBC & Telemundo will participate in Dallas Pride in September and Universal Orlando will participate in Orlando Pride in October.
Additionally, NBCNews.com launched NBC OUT, the first LGBTQ vertical by a major broadcast media organization, to showcase enterprise reporting, original video, and a range of political, cultural, and social interest.
Two years ago, Sunnivie Brydum, managing editor of the gay magazine The Advocate, naturally threw cold water on the need for objectivity on LGBT issues:
"I've always felt like objectivity is a province of people who don't have to fight to be seen fully," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas said to me this summer in a conversation at The Advocate's office in Los Angeles. "I was never privileged enough to be objective."...
I refuse to believe that such empathy, such personal conviction to the stories we cover, in any way undermines my journalistic integrity. In my experience, the people drawn to journalism tend to be truth-seekers who want free and equal access to honest information. That's especially true for us queer journalists. We're just working to share what we know to be the reality in the face of a larger culture that, at best, agrees to "tolerate" us. I don't believe that makes me any less of a journalist. But it might make others call me a bit of an activist.... [Italics in the original.]
As Vargas so effectively demonstrates, being a journalist does not preclude one from being an activist. The terms aren't mutually exclusive. Certainly, journalists are — rightly — held to a higher standard of accountability than the general public or perhaps even than a typical activist might be. But that elevated standard, that reverence for truth and commitment to seeking out the whole story, is a strength that can be leveraged for more effective activism, not less.
Brydum recently wrote an article celebrating how gay journalists could use their sensitivities and sensibilities to gain greater access to the victims of the Pulse nightclub mass murder in Orlando.
