Bill Donohue comments on media coverage of the gay pride parades that took place last weekend:
According to Time Out Chicago, there were “some real gems,” including “half-naked, hairy men in bath towels” in the Windy City’s gay pride parade. A.V. Club, an entertainment media source, reported that the Episcopal Lesbians for Peace and Nudity marched in the Minneapolis gay parade, along with Dykes on Bikes. AP spotted men wearing nothing but jock straps marching in New York’s parade. In Seattle, moviecitynews.com noticed a “giant walking penis, and a pack of naked dudes with body paint covering their kibbles and bits.” But it was in San Francisco where they let it all hang out.
AP said the Bay City parade had “more than a little nudity,” while the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the march “had its share of nudity and dog collars.” [Note: Dogs were not wearing the collars.] The New York Times said, “Among the usual sights at San Francisco’s annual gay pride parade on Sunday—rainbow flags, lesbians on motorcycles, unfortunately naked men….” [No explanation was given for the use of the judgmental term “unfortunately.”]
The electronic media that covered the San Francisco gay pride parade uniformly did not show pictures of the naked men marching down the street. Indeed, only KRON, the NBC affiliate, even mentioned the nudity. Those television stations that reported on the march, without mentioning the nudity were: CNN and MSNBC at the national cable news level; and KTVU, KPIX, KGO, KQED, KCBS and KNTV at the local level.
There is no demographic group in the nation, among all the racial and ethnic affiliations, which ever features nudity, half-nudity and simulated sex acts in their parades. Indeed, they don’t even march in dog collars. But to those whose idea of freedom is genital liberation, sexuality is their central identity. The real problem here is the reluctance of the media to accurately cover gay pride events. The bias is palpable
