[See "Hate Mail or Criminal Harassment?" Part I and Part II below.)
Next in our little saga of hate speech, Gaston28@aol.com apparently teamed up with Boston media figures to try to intimidate Article 8 and MassResistance. This is the next level: hate speech by "respected" Boston media personalities.
The mainstream media in Massachusetts includes a filthy rag called the Boston Phoenix. We had a little fun a few months ago cataloguing the sins of their media writer, Dan Kennedy, as he aided and abetted the queer activists, such as the hate mailer Gaston.
Gaston didn't stop with his harassment at the Article 8 office. He sent comments to Dan Kennedy's media column, and apparently fed Dan's frenzy against Article 8 and MassResistance. (See Dan Kennedy's Hateful Rant, 4-20-05.)
(Dan is now Professor of Journalism at Northeastern University, where they hire only the best. He's also a commentator on WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston with Emily Rooney", and he has a brand new blog where you can reach him at da.kennedy@neu.edu.)
Dan was simply outraged back in April that anyone would object to the homosexual paper Bay Windows being handed out for free in neighborhood supermarkets. Don't we all want our young children to be able to pick up cover stories on the Pope's penis, or art reviews on lesbian anal sex, or advertisements concerning anal lubricants? Only homophobes would object! Here's what Dan said about Article 8 and MassResistance, when they did object:
"HOMOPHOBIA ON (AND OFF) THE RACKS. Brian Camenker and his merry band of hatemongers at the Article 8 Alliance are at it again. For weeks, they've been pushing for a ban on the gay-and-lesbian newspaper Bay Windows at local supermarkets.... The Article 8 folks, bless their twisted little hearts, have also included a link to this Washington Blade article about what you can do to get Bay Windows back on the racks. Thanks, Brian. And here's a gutless anonymous homophobe [that's me!] with a blog who's getting involved in the action. Good grief. I need a shower."
Gaston piled on in Dan's media column comments, for instance his April 20 entry:
["Ms. Massresistance"] is a coward. She's the worse [sic] the internet has to offer. She types insane diatribes and hate speech and takes no responsibility. Then she screams about freedom of speech while she keeps herself anomymous [sic]. All those Article 8 people are pretty scarey [sic]. I went down to Fenueil [sic] Hall last year when they brought in Family Values person Alan Keyes (yes, the family values man who cut off his daughter when he found out he [sic] was gay.) The [sic] lot of the people attending looked like the villians [sic] from Deliverance, i.e., his father is his brother is his grandfather, etc. They still don't get it that same sex couples can marry in this state. I recommend they go back to south [sic] where bigotry is not only tolerated but codified in law." (Submitted two days in a row, with different names.)
Dan let run other hate-filled comments, like this one from "Anonymous":
MassResistance: "She wants to spew hate and venom but not take responsibility for the damage her actions cause. She is truly an evil woman not unlike the Nazis. Why is she so obsessed with gay people?" or "this woman needs psychiatric help. So does Camenker..."
Then Dan co-hosted on WRKO 680AM's morning drive-time show (April 22), with Scott Allen Miller. Out of the blue, a whole half hour of the show was devoted to nasty name-calling directed at MassResistance! (How odd they should focus on this little tiny blog.) Dan claimed to be "almost 100% certain" of the identity of the "gutless anonymous homophobe" behind MassResistance, but since he wasn't absolutely certain, he would not reveal a name. (Such high journalistic standards... that must be how he got to be a professor.) Dan's never talked to us. How would he have any idea who we are? Well, we suspect Gaston gave him his idea.
Scott Allen Miller, host on the WRKO show (who is pro "gay marriage"), agreed with Dan and Gaston, and made his own snide remarks about our stone-age attitudes. (See MassResistance Under Attack by Boston Phoenix; Attacker to Co-Host AM680 radio morning show Friday! 4-21-05; Dan Kennedy & WRKO AM680 Slam MassResistance 4-22-05. Also, Dan Kennedy, Scorekeeping, Stop & Shop, etc. 4-29-05.)
(Coming soon: Part IV in our Hate Speech/Hate Crimes series.)
