It's likely a tired story to many by now, nearly a week after the Miss USA pageant and the controversy that ensued over Miss USA runner-up, Miss California Carrie Prejean's answer to a question from same-sex marriage activist and gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who was judging the event. However, it took CNN host and Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz to ask Hilton some of the pertinent questions surrounding his curious rage over her answer.
Hilton appeared on CNN's April 26 "Reliable Sources" and justified some of his vitriolic insults hurled at Prejean by saying that was just part of the vernacular he uses on his Web site. He didn't address the point some have made that his use of misogynist language might have been as equally or more offensive than how he perceived Prejean's answer at the Miss USA pageant.
"I was very angry," Hilton said. "And it's almost insulting to me that people expect me not to be outraged, when I am told I am a second-class citizen and shouldn't deserve the same rights that heterosexuals get."
Kurtz explained to Hilton that Prejean's view was similar to most Americans, including President Barack Obama. Hilton told Kurtz his anger was aimed at Prejean for the way she answered his question, an issue of semantics and he gave Obama a pass for addressing it differently.
"Well, you mentioned President Obama, but when he says that, he says he believes marriage is between a man and a woman," Hilton responded. "However, he also says that he believes gay and lesbian couples should have the same rights that heterosexual couples [have]. If Miss California have said the same thing, then I wouldn't have had an issue with her answer because it wouldn't have been inclusive and it wouldn't have caused this wedge and divided the way that it did."
Hilton also credited Prejean for giving him the opportunity to capitalize on this controversy, as some have pointed out he's been all too willing to do.
"I thank her because if she had not answered my question the way that she had, we wouldn't have spent almost an entire week having the discourse that we've had about gay marriage, which is a very important one."
Still, Hilton ignored the double standard he was orchestrating with his media campaign against Miss California. He accused her of spewing hate, all while he is hurling his own insults at her.
"Well, she used the national platform of the Miss USA competition to spew what I think is hate," Hilton said.
Kurtz challenged Hilton, explaining he was the one who asked her the hot-button question raising the possibility of such a response.
"Correct, she answered it and I am happy that she answered it with her convictions," Hilton said. "In my opinion, I judged her as not answering as well as she could have, because like I said before, the next Miss USA should have given an answer that represented all Americans and wasn't divisive or perceived as offensive."
