In a press release announcing the award will be handed out in New York on March 13, GLAAD touted how "A number of episodes have featured discussion of LGBT issues and LGBT guests, including a segment featuring Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black speaking about his Mormon upbringing as a gay man. The episode is nominated for a GLAAD Media Award this year for Outstanding Talk Show Episode." Past recipients of the Excellence in Media Award include ABC’s Diane Sawyer.
In a similar vein, the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association are holding their annual "Headlines and Headliners" fundraiser in New York on March 25, co-hosted by NBC's Today fourth-hour co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. NBC Universal is a "diamond sponsor" of the event and will have a heavy NBC contingent attending, including other female Today co-hosts and news anchors:
Steve Capus (NBC News president), Natalie Morales, Amy Robach, Meredith Vieira, Alexandra Wallace (NBC Nightly News executive producer), and Jenna Wolfe.
Other NBC Universal stars listed as attending are MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, CNBC’s Mike Huckman and Trish Regan, and gay Bravo host Andy Cohen. CNN’s Jeanne Moos and Soledad O’Brien are also slated to attend, and Jane Velez-Mitchell of CNN Headline News.
"Silver" sponsors include Fox News, and "Bronze" sponsors include The New York Times. The press release oozed:
"We are incredibly pleased that Kathie Lee and Hoda are kicking off NLGJA's twentieth year working for fairness, accuracy, and diversity in news coverage," said NLGJA Managing Director Michael Tune . "While many media organizations are in a financial crisis and LGBT issues continue to garner headlines, our nation cannot afford to have journalists or journalism silenced. This benefit helps keep our voice strong."
The GLAAD Media Awards dinners also have media-company sponsors including Time Warner, Comcast, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
This is not the first time Behar's been offered an award from the gay left. In 2000, she won the New York City Public Advocate’s Special Advocate Award for her "outstanding friendship to the LGBT community."
GLAAD also touted her liberal advocacy on The View:
For over a decade, Ms. Behar has used this nationally televised platform to voice her support for LGBT equality on a number of issues, particularly during the show's "Hot Topics" segment at the start of every show. Her no-frills, common sense approach to these issues has won her numerous supporters in the LGBT community.
