Pam Spaulding Needs Her A Man

You know you've made it when the Conservative Right and anti-gay religious folks talk about you and start to offer advice on how to improve yourself and bring respectability to yourself when they say you need to find Jesus and get yourself a man and propagate.

Pam Spaulding head mistress over at Pam's House Blend has been given such advice by one of her nemesis the Reverend Patrick Wooden in an interview with Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth.

Spaulding goes into detail about the interview and her reaction to the good Reverend's advice and his invitation in the interview to sit down for lunch with him.

With all due respect to Reverend Wooden you're the last person Spaulding needs to get advice from particularly when you hide behind the cloth of Jesus and condemn those whose lifestyle doesn't fit into your view of the word of God and the teachings of Jesus.

Seems to me Reverend as I was taught in Sunday school many years ago, Jesus and God loves all and we're all His children with no stipulations. It's only mortal men such as yourself who put those stipulations into play for your religious rhetoric and interpretation of the Bible, either Old or New Testament.

And about Spaulding sitting down with you for lunch Reverend Wooden, I wouldn't hold your breath, you may just have to wait for the Second Coming then both Jesus and Spaulding can have a very long discussion with you about the error of your ways.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Wannabee Journalists And de Law

You "citizen journalists" may want to pay attention to this and read the links provide herein.

Our story starts, and with a hat tip to NGBlog for this posting, with the apparent dismay of David Badash purveyor of the blog The New Civil Rights Movement over a tweet from Brian Cuban who twited that "bloggers masquerading as journalists are a blight on the Internet".

Couldn't agree more if I had said it myself.

Contained within NGBlog's link above is a link to an article about a blogger in Oregon who lost her battle for defamation in which she was accused of the preceding offense for her writing about the co-founder of a financial group who she accused of, well shall we say less than honorable intentions. This court decision was written in December of last year but is still apropo for today's lesson.

The judge in the case ruled that the blogger was not a member of the media nor could provide any proof that she was or has ever been a journalist ergo she was not protected under journalist shield laws nor under the First Amendment.

Not all states offer shield laws and even then not all have been updated to include avenues of "new media" including bloggers and the so-called wannabes "citizen journalists" according to an article at Bloomberg Businessweek.

In the judges ruling it reads in part, “… although defendant is a self-proclaimed ‘investigative blogger’ and defines herself as ‘media,’ the record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the law.”

In his judgement US District Judge Marco A. Hernandez ruled that the single post which was at the center of the suit, was indeed defamatory because it was presented, essentially, as more factual in tone than her other posts, and therefore a reasonable person could conclude it was factual according to an article at The Daily Weekly.

So you good folks of Blogdumb and eyes uh joinallist better find out if you are covered in the state you write your blog and learn about the term "absence of malice".

To help those of you who are too damn lazy to pick up a book and read law as it pertains to journalism or are of the generations who believe everything one needs to know comes magically (like putting dirty clothes in the hamper and then they reappear clean in your dresser drawers) into computers, I-pads and other such silliness of this monolithic age of technology watch the video and also get yourself a real job in journalism and then you'll be protected by Fourth Estate laws and have access to attorneys who specialize in such things.

Just because you can write and copy/paste doesn't make you a journalist no matter how many blogs or websites use your material. Someone should clue in David Badash on that little piece of news.

Outing de Dead Hollywood Actors

Hold on to your knickers boys and girls another of those "tell all name all" is due out on February 14, yes dear just in time for your significant other on Valentine's Day.

This time it's a booked titled .. are you ready for this .... "Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars".

Written by one Scotty Bowers who claims back in the 40's he ran a prostitution ring for gays and bisexuals and serviced the Hollywood stars who were in the closet and protected by movie studio chiefs and studio PR honchos who did everything they could to keep the public from learning their favorite actor or actress may be the flavor of Tutti-Fruity ice cream.

In a lead up to publication article the 88 year old miscreant Bowers said in an interview with The New York Times, “I finally said yes because I’m not getting any younger and all of my famous tricks are dead by now, the truth can’t hurt them anymore.”

Yes it's always easier to show and tell when your intended victims of scandal are dead and you don't have to worry about libel suits.

I bring this up not to promote this type of trash but because of the utter disdain and contempt I have for such books.

Spend your hard earned money if you want but this piss-ant gets not a shekel from this kid.

Let The Gay Dead Rest In Peace

Since I started blogging about LGBTs in 2008 one of the many things which infuriates me about LGBT blogs and websites is when someone commits suicide and there will be post after post of followup even if there is nothing new to add to the sad story other than to promote the cause(s) of the event in which a person takes their life which comes back to gay bullying and often now to promote The Trevor Project and the It Gets Better campaign.

There is such a thing in the real world of journalism as followup but not as it is seen in the so-called world of Citizen Journalists.

Followup to a story is to add new information not used as a means to promote groups, organizations or ideas no matter how well intentioned those three are intended to be.

Many will cry out that we need to do this to keep in the forefront suicide because of bullying as the story isn't continued in the mainstream press.

That's because if there is nothing more beyond the initial story and followup if warranted, the story ends. To keep the story continuing when there is nothing more to add which LGBT blogs and websites do is only singing to the choir, which I'm sure there is more than one member of that choir which gets tired of the brow beating which this repetition is.

This writer is of the opinion that all the continued postings really do nothing other than to get readers to the respective blogs/websites to build readership and perhaps have someone click on an advertisement.

The continuation of one of the latest poor souls can be found at Gay Voices at Huff Post which is primarily a copy/paste of another LGBT news website in which a contributor after going to one of several memorial services offers up portions of a suicide note. That the contributor went to the memorial service as an individual is fine, to report on the service is acceptable but to go and offer up portions of a suicide note and in turn "sensationalize" this "followup story" as both Gay Voices and the originating website does goes well beyond basic respect for the deceased and in my opinion is reprehensible.

Is it really necessary to publish a suicide note either in part or whole which will only provide morbid curiosity for many and making the acquisition of the note newsworthy as being deemed "exclusively". This is bottom feeding yellow journalism of the worse kind and to what end, to be able to explain how and why an individual killed himself. That was apparent in the initial reporting of the sad event.

To me the contributor who wrote the original story which Gay Voices uses is akin to a vulture flying over a dead body to see how much more can be picked from the bones and to whom I have about as much respect for as ambulance chasing attorneys, paparazzi and those journalists and others engulfed in the "black eye" currently being given to the news media in the UK.

As one who had to live through the nightmare of a dead family member who committed suicide and was then "brutalized" by the media in New York City because of his "celebrity" I ask the contributor and others where is the compassion and decency for family and friends of the deceased ?

Bloggers and contributors who write or copy/paste to keep a sad event ongoing so that the well intended which are supposed to help others in their most desperate times can be promoted when in fact in many instances, particularly in this case, are an illusion of hope and are proved to be dismal failures.

With all the coverage which these blogs and websites offer, which some in a despondent frame of mind may look upon as a form of celebrity after the fact, it begs the question, does that contribute to more suicides ?


To report or not to when it comes to suicide is one of editorial dictate and journalistic conscience.

This journalist because of journalistic conscience can say there is no blood on my hands.