Much Ado About Nothing- Upset Over A Single Phrase in A Reporter’s Outstanding Work

11/05/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
There is something called damning with faint praise. Mr. Andy Towle recently commented upon how Contessa Brewer of MSNBC used the wording “defining marriage traditionally” in her reports the day after the election. Ms Brewer, a native of Maine, often used that phrasing with a slight hint of irony and sarcasm that came through despite her professionalism. While Mr. Towle went on to state “On another note, in the earlier clip I posted of Brewer I was just noting the unfortunate use of the term ‘traditional marriage‘. I thought the rest of her reporting was excellent,” it might have been better for all concerned if he had simply emailed her to discuss changing her phrasing in the future.

Ms Brewer did a fine job reporting on the Maine election despite her own dislike of the outcome. She did not stop reporting on the outcome until late in the night, and was up and at work reporting again early the next morning. The people who are busy commenting upon his blog are already stating that she is a big supporter of our cause, and that most had either not noticed or not been offended by her wording.

Ms Brewer was a natural choice for this report. The thirty-five year old is from Parsonsfield, Maine in York County. This is her home state.

When Mr. Towle chose to go after Ms Brewer for her phrasing, he said simply that she had done some fine reporting. She did do some fine reporting. By backhandedly complimenting Ms Brewer, Mr. Towle is still condemning her for using a phrase that he does not agree with.

To Mr. Towle, I would say this…we are not the Republican Party. Public pillorying of our own hurts us more than it helps us. Simply writing to Ms Brewer on this subject would have been better than dragging this into the public for a lot of people who, quite frankly, probably did not notice the words that she used.

Addendum: The story itself comes from Jamison Foser at Media Watch. While they are busy condemning Ms Brewer for using non-neutral language, they themselves are guilty of the same thing in not using non-neutral language to describe Ms Brewer’s stance on this issue. If the language is non-neutral in its tone, it does not help to attack someone for using it by implying that they are anti-gay, especially when the opposite is true.

If they had a problem, they should have used less problematic language in describing this.

Edited to reflect the removal of the post from Queers United.