Obama And The Gehys

Gay Press Frustrated By Obama Approach

Mark Segal didn’t want to wait. After weeks of requests to interview Barack Obama, the publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News concluded the senator’s aides may never make him available.

So even as the Obama campaign held out the possibility of an interview before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Segal published a half-blank front page to represent what he described in an editorial as Obama’s "disrespect of the LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender] local media."

It was an attention-grabbing move that positioned a floodlight on gripes that had been festering for months in the gay press: Obama won’t make time for local gay publications.

This is my favorite quote from the story:

"It wasn’t surprising to me," said Tammye Nash, editor of the Dallas Voice, a gay and lesbian weekly that also failed in its efforts to interview Obama before the Texas primary on March 4. "Obviously he is not snubbing the gay community. But we obviously feel he is [bypassing] the gay press."

Ms. Nash, like most gay liberals, just can't bring herself to bite the hand the flips her off. It sounds like battered wife syndrome, "he beats me, but it's for my own good because he loves me."

Obama isn't totally ignoring the 'mos though:

In keeping with his campaign’s managed approach to the media in general, Obama has communicated with the gay press on his own terms, placing ads in local gay newspapers and writing op-eds. And with more interview requests than Obama can fill, aides likely do a cost-benefit analysis of each media outlet and the audience it reaches.

"Obama is talking to mainstream audiences about issues of importance to our community," said Eric Stern, a leader of Obama’s National LGBT Leadership Council. "While Hillary is attractive, she is making her appeal almost exclusively to gay audiences. That is not a postmodern approach."

Translation from liberalese: Obama wants your gay and lesbian votes, he just doesn't want to actually associate with you to get them. So just shut-up, bend over and punch the touchscreen for His Obamaness.