From President Obama’s January 27 State of the Union speech
Hat tip to Media Matters
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Tag Archives: cable
GLAAD Study: More Gay Characters On Network TV, Fewer On Cable
Posted by Audiegrl

Jennifer Beals (L World), Charlie David (Dante's Cove), Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters), Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters), Roma Maffia (Nip/Tuck), John Barrowman (Torchwood), Gregory Michael (Dante's Cove), Reichen Lehmkuhl (Dante's Cove), Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck). (Source GLAAD 2008)
Associated Press—The number of gay and bisexual characters on prime-time network TV is up slightly this season to 18 out of a total of 600 roles, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The increase over 2008 fell well short of the more than twofold percentage jump in the ’08 season compared to 2007, according to the group.
And on mainstream cable channels the number of such characters continued to drop, slipping from a total of 32 in 2008 to 25 this year. The 2007 tally was 40.
Two channels that program for gay viewers, here! and Logo, add 27 gay characters to the cable total, GLAAD said.
The 14th annual “Where We Are on TV” report released Wednesday found that 3 percent of actors appearing regularly on network drama and comedy series in the 2009-10 season will portray gay, lesbian or bisexual characters.
That’s up from 2.6 percent in the 2008-09 season. In 2007-08, it was 1.1 percent.
Only four of the 18 characters this season are nonwhite, GLAAD found, and there is only one lesbian, on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Using information provided by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW, the group reviewed 79 scripted series announced to air this season.
The steady increase in gay characters is promising, as are story lines that are becoming “more reflective of current issues affecting our lives,” GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said in a statement.
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For GLAAD’s complete list of LGBT characters on cable, click here.
About GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. For more information, please visit www.glaad.org.
Filed under Culture, Gay (LGBT) Rights, Media and Entertainment, TV Shows, Uncategorized
Where Did We Go? By Thomas Friedman
Posted by Audiegrl
New York Times/Thomas Friedman—I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing.
I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to delegitimize Rabin, who was committed to trading land for peace as part of the Oslo accords. They questioned his authority. They accused him of treason. They created pictures depicting him as a Nazi SS officer, and they shouted death threats at rallies. His political opponents winked at it all.
And in so doing they created a poisonous political environment that was interpreted by one right-wing Jewish nationalist as a license to kill Rabin — he must have heard, “God will be on your side” — and so he did.
Others have already remarked on this analogy, but I want to add my voice because the parallels to Israel then and America today turn my stomach: I have no problem with any of the substantive criticism of President Obama from the right or left. But something very dangerous is happening. Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.
What kind of madness is it that someone would create a poll on Facebook asking respondents, “Should Obama be killed?” The choices were: “No, Maybe, Yes, and Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service is now investigating. I hope they put the jerk in jail and throw away the key because this is exactly what was being done to Rabin.
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Rachel Maddow, Voice of America
By cutting across the grain of US cable news, the sober-minded liberal pundit has become the best talkshow host in America
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Filed under Culture, Democrats, Gay (LGBT) Rights, Humor, Media and Entertainment, Politics, Television, TV Shows, Women's Issues
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