Yesterday, former WW freelancer Julie Sabatier posted a few juicy tidbits on the area’s only publication dedicated to the comings and goings of queer folk, Just Out. On Just Out’s blog she introduced herself and talked about getting hired there as a new staff news reporter.
Hi! (waves enthusiastically)…Today is my first day as a staff writer and, thus, as a blogger. After a year as a freelancer, I’m so happy to be joining the team.
But is she REALLY a member of the “team”?
Her blog post does allude to lots of activities usually affiliated with lesbians : went to Oberlin College. I have a thing for figs. I’m a cat person. I used to be a vegetarian until bacon got the better of me. Oscar Wilde, Virigina Woolf and Margaret Atwood are some of my favorite writers. What, no Subarus?
The truth is Ms. Sabatier is straight. In fact, with this new hire, Publisher Marty Davis now has an ALL STRAIGHT news staff at the city’s only ALL GAY publication. Which begs the following question: is it really that tough to find a queer in Portland who can write about City Hall and Mayor Potter’s penchant for showing up to almost every gay event in town? In-queering minds want to know.
Speaking of queer stuff: has anybody noticed how absolutely off his nut Peter Ames Carlin is on The Oregonian’s A&E Now blog about covering the upcoming television season? Not only is he using words I’ve never seen in the daily anywhere including WTF (we assume even Editor Sandy Rowe knows what THAT stands for) but his stream of consciousness conversations with himself as he covers the TV Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles is like watching Hunter S. Thompson on a bender. Yes it’s that freaky. Trashing pretty much everything he’s seen in what he calls “Candyland” (except his blessed Ken Burns) he spouts on everything from simulated (or are they?) sex scenes on a new HBO show called “Tell Me You Love Me” to whether or not someone at a party is a trannie to sizing up the free drinks. But perhaps the best post was at 7:48 am on July 16 entitled Beef, Cigars and Jeff Goldblum on Piano. Also: A Dozen Hits of Acid.
It starts off with this gem: I literally dreamed last night that I was talked into ingesting not one, not two, not six, but a full dozen hits of LSD. Hmmm..that’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone from The Big O talk like that. He then goes off on NBC’s entertainment chief Ben Silverman for his “odd exhortations.”
Well, Peter it’s time someone told you that you too are full of a few “odd exhortations.”
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But hey, he loves his job, which is wonderful, and please, please, Fred and Sandykins, don’t decide that you don’t need someone to cover TV any more because it’s as irrelevant as a daily newspaper…
http://bojack.org/2007/07/banished_to_the_real_estate_se.html#comment-44639
At it’s core, this question of whether I’m STRAIGHT or GAY has to do with who I like to have sex with and how I like to do it, and I don’t really think that has anything to do with how I do my job. Margaret
Cho talks about gay issues all the time in her work and you don’t see people getting their panties in a wad over the fact that she mostly prefers cock to pussy. I’d say I’m about as gay as Ms. Cho, and fortunately, the people I work with are open-minded enough to accept me as such.
What, no Subarus? Silly Byron, everyone knows that Portland lesbians drive red compact pickup trucks and have black labs with purple collars. It’s the law.
And please, The O, please keep Peter Ames Carlin. He’s about the only interesting read in the paper. Best 15 minutes of your day? Shooting a little high, aren’t you? I love that they’re proud of the fact that it only takes 15 minutes to read the entire paper. How about "You can read it in the time it takes you to poop"?
for the first time in the past 6 months or so i actually find myself agreeing with byron beck. i remember some peter carlin blog posts awhile back that were wildly inappropriate about cocaine and hookers and they were taken down. also i do think its important to have queer people at a queer publication. it’s about perspective and how you exist in the world. you wouldn’t have an all white staff at a black publication would you?
Maybe it’s the Big O’s attempt to lure a younger demographic to the dying medium of print media. And while they may know what WTF and MILF means – I’m sure most daily editors have grandchildren, after all – but i’ll wager that they don’t fully understand what Peter’s up to, so giving him a longer leash. I myself kind of like some of it.
I wrote a full response in my blog (http://blog.oregonlive.com/qpdx/2007/07/judging_just_outs_gayness.html) but here’s an excerpt:
..you can’t hire based on sexuality alone, it’s discriminatory. But there are deserving queer writers here. Lots of them. And in the case of queer news and culture I have to say that part of the essential knowledge of writing comes from the experiences of gay life, culture, and oppression. Someone who has walked through the world as a straight ally really can’t write queer issues with the same kind of depth, no matter how many cats they own.
I have a broad definition of queer but if you don’t even identify as any of the alphabet soup yourself, I wouldn’t argue to be a part of certain jobs that take firsthand knowledge, such as counseling or youth group facilitation etc. Writing for a gay rag is right on the edge of this precipice. And though Just Out’s Editor-In-Chief may certainly be a big ‘mo, Byron implies that the rest of the staff is also pretty hetero. I’d have to say, for any publication that wishes to be linked to the gay community to have any credibility, at least half the staff’s gotta fly their pride flag high.
Byron, how can you emit such harsh criticism of our lovely Ms. S. Is the WWeek a gay journal….nnnooooooo. It’s for everybody and they let you write for it. So straight and queer folk can all write and publish, and what distinguishes you from others isn’t who you screw, it’s how well you write and communicate…did you forget what writers do at work? Do you think you should only write for queer publications..probably not, and not be allowed the opportunity to display your professional talents in "straight" papers?
Wow! I heard a rumor about this blog posting, but I didn’t believe it. Looks like it’s true after all. Way to shoot your own colleague in the foot. But if y’all are gonna cast asparagus at Ms Sabatier (fuggetabout Carlin) , how ’bout looking at yourselves?
How many people of color work at the Willie? But wait…you guys write about race, including a sort of Benedict Arnold expose on brown people who — lo and behold! — are suddenly rounded up and deported like cattle. Did it happen because y’all are LILY WHITE OVER THERE? Last I checked, our old friend David Walker quit…he used to loudly declaim, at public events, that he was "the token Black" on your staff. Y’all used to make him — a film reviewer — cover the NAACP. He hated it. But now he’s gone….Hmmm…it appears your editorial staff is UNREPRESENTATIONAL of the communities you are struggling to cover.
And here’s another one: If WW is so "alternative", then why does it seem all your writers (’cept Nigel) are AS CONSERVATIVE AS THE B’OREGONIAN? Is it because your editor is FROM THE B’OREGONIAN?? Well, that’s one way to staff an ALT WEEKLY. UNREPRESENTATIVE, again, of the radical underground culturals that are supposedly your raison d’etre. And believe me, it’s not like anyone else is doing such a superb job of covering that SINCE THE WILLAMETTE WEEK KILLED THE ROCKET. Put that one in your hookah and smoke it, y’all. And no you can’t pretend the MERC is anything like that beloved, now-dead publication.
BTW Last I checked, some of those JO folx ARE queer…but is this one of those semantic games where you’re not really saying the whole staff is straight (untrue) but rather implying the EDITORIAL staff is queerless?
WTF, y’all? Why are you bringing this up? Because when you guys start throwing eggs, they tend to get all over your face. (and gawd knows this is not the first time…..) XXOO L
PS Byron — love you man. What’s going on here?