Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Nobody Knows I'm Sarcastic

Leafing through the weekend papers this afternoon, I saw this article by the Toronto Star's public editor, scolding Antonia for this comment thread:

"Funny because I didn't know he was gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Farber is not gay, as was made clear in several subsequent comments Zerbisias herself allowed to be posted on her blog. Those commenters praised the CJC head for being "gay positive."

I read the article and thought to myself, "Antonia is so outspoken and sarcastic! Maybe she should be more careful." In the Olden Times, before the rise of the internets, I would have been content to leave it at that. Instead, fifteen seconds after getting online, I had more context than I needed, including this:

Although he isn't gay, Farber marched in the parade wearing a t-shirt that read, "Nobody knows I'm gay."

There's even a PHOTO! Then I went and read the full comment thread on Antonia's post (go see for yourself) and found that instead of failing to "abide by the professional and journalistic standards the Star has long strived to uphold", Antonia was there in the thick of her comments section moderating a really tough thread. She was actually doing her job and was smacked down for it as the rabble.ca writer pointed out:

How disappointing to see the Star scapegoat one of its own columnists in order to appease a political lobby organization.

Update: Jen Gerson weighs in:
You say potato. I say potatoe. You see “valid concerns.” I see a cheap, pot-shot ploy to discredit an avowed and vocal critic of the CJC.

And the vaguely (un)defined “standards of fairness, accuracy and civility,” are weirdly reminiscent of the media laws being put in place in my current country of residence.

If I ever return to Canada, I’m glad to know my time living as a journalist in an Islamic theocracy won’t have gone to waste.

More update: It's so ridiculous, even Antonia's usual opponents are rolling their eyes:

Despite the fact that Mr Farber was the first to misidentify himself as gay, the newspaper's ombudswoman devotes an entire column to a characteristically pompous media-ethics snoozefest denouncing the offending columnist for being "tasteless" and getting the paper's apparently brain-dead publisher (my old boss at The Chicago Sun-Times) to do a lot of plonking pro-forma huffing about how the item "fell short of the Star's standards of accuracy, fairness and civility", and reassuring readers that in future systems will be put in place to ensure that the paper is even more unreadable ...whoops, sorry, I mean, systems will be put in place to ensure that non-gays claiming to be gay are not taken at their word without having their gay status confirmed by gay-accredited orientation-checkers.

Might as well keep updating: More. And a funny one:
Y'know, I honestly shudder to think of what pogge and mahigan and Tim would do to me if I ever patted them on the head for their "gusto in embracing the tools of new media." The person who wrote that feather-brained sentence is stuck in some alternate universe in which bloggers are still teenagers in their jammies typing away in their mothers' basements.

Monday: another one, another point:
Perhaps the saddest thing about this chilling, over the top attack on journalistic autonomy and free expression is the fact that Zerbisias has been spanked–publicly–for violating an as-yet unwritten policy. Vague exhortations regarding ‘civility’ come across as fawning overcompensation; English is simply trying too damn hard to be seen as doing something, and, as noted by Gerson, ends up looking foolish in the process–especially when one considers Farber’s provocative reputation and contentious history with Zerbisias (another memo for English: if you can’t separate legitimate reader concerns from blatant concern trolling you have no business being a public editor).

Finally: The Final Roundup.

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