Given the brouhaha AP made about bloggers using excerpts and headlines of their articles, I can’t wait to hear what they do about this. If you click through to the article you’ll see a bunch of hilarious examples of how the website’s word replacement works. And why ‘gay’? Why are they so afraid of gays? Not that they limit themselves. Check out how AFA’s OneNewsNow redirects links into their site to a Good Person Test which shows you’re all going to hell.
Right Wing Watch: The Dangers of Auto-Replace
In addition to blocking traffic from websites they don’t like, it looks like the web-geniuses behind the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site have a few other tricks up their sleeves, such as automatically replacing any use of the word “gay” with the word “homosexual” in any of the AP stories they run … leading to instances in which proper names are reformatted to meet their ridiculous standard, such as this article about sprinter Tyson Gay winning the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in which he is renamed “Tyson Homosexual”:
Oh,oh – I think Tyson Gay has grounds for a BIG FAT LAWSUIT AGAINST THE American Family Association !!! Defamation of Character !!! I hope he gets MILLIONS !!!
Yep I agree.
James Hill, do you call yourself gay or homosexual?
No case as the is no proof that their intent was to cause harm unless they refuse to take down the reference. For example, if your website automatically changed something, and someone sued you, would you want to be gay or homosexual?
Wait a minute….
Is JimD saying it is defaming to call someone a homosexual? (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)
These hatemongering mofo’s are such helpless, hopless, assholes. They ought to just go back to the white sheets and the lynchings and the truck-dragging. At least they were good at that.
Aren’t both words interchangeable and correct. I don’t see the problem. Its no different between the terms blacks and african american, even though black is more correct as not all blacks came from Africa.
#6 – gquaglia
Did you RTFA?????? I grew up next door to a girl named Gay. I don’t imagine she’d be amused to see her first name swapped out to “Homosexual” by some looney-tune wingnuts who find “gay” to be too euphemistic.
Just wait. Some of the inbred right-wingers are going to get their computer geniuses to change all instances of “gay” to “faggot”.
Watch for the sparks to fly then!
Unless the meaning of the story is changed by replacing two words that are interchangeable, I fail to see the big deal here. Other than the uber liberal “dvorak.org/blog” trying to call Republicans bigots in a very round about fashion.
I guess changing it to this may be out of the question:
http://tinyurl.com/6qwqj7
#5 Mister Mustard
I’m stuck by your selective tolerance of lifestyles to the point you take up for one by insulting another.
Congratulations! As a result of your blatant hypocrisy you are the top candidate for the next Nobel Peace Prize.
Eric #8
The good powder is in South America.
#9: No–we’re calling the “American Family News Network” bigots.
@Matt
Anyone still left in the Republican party after 8 years of Bush probably is a bigot.
# 11 Dr Dodd
The difference is that one chooses to be an asshole. One does not choose to be gay.
While I don’t agree with a blog rewriting AP or anyone else’s copyrighted stories, the AP ought to be using the word homosexual in the first place.
The first thing I learned in journalism class was not to use words or phrases where the meaning could be easily confused. “Gay” has several definitions. “Homosexual” doesn’t.
I also understand that there times we want to call a group by the label they have placed on themselves. Since one of the leading homosexual groups is GLAD then I would assume that “gay” only means homosexual men.
Of course if we stick to this rule we need to be calling African-Americans colored people. NAACP says so.
#15 J
You sound like an expert and the embodiment of both so I defer to your experience.
Anyone who advocates acceptance of homosexuality should not fear use of the term “homosexual” instead of the term “gay”. “Gay” is a term used by those who wish to put a pleasant sheen on what many people consider to be frightening or repugnant- one guy penetrating another guy from the rear. The term “homosexual” is honest while the term “gay” is deceptive. Plus it probably pisses off “happy” or “buoyant” people all over the earth! I am occasionally “happy” or “buoyant”, but definitely not “homosexual”. What if I were fond of pulling the wings off of butterflies, or baking rhubarb pies, or driving Chevies, and decided to appropriate the term for myself “Hasidic Jew”. I think that might make some people mad.
This reminds me of years ago when I used to frequent a political BBS. It had a profanity filter on it (which we begged to have removed).
Anyway, it’s really hard to talk about politics when people wonder who “D*&% Cheney” is.
I am always amazed at the people who say we should be tolerant of other people are also the ones who are the quickest to lash out with defamation. You should be able to disagree with someone without name-calling. It only shows that you do not peace inside you. It, also, shows that you do not respect people even if they think differently than you.
It causes me to ignore anything you happen to say even if there is some truth to it.
# 17 Dr Dodd
“You sound like an expert and the embodiment of both so I defer to your experience.”
Expert? Yes I study people like you all the time.
Embodiment? If you want to think of me as an angry homosexual for your fantasies be my guest.
In a related article, Vice-President Penis Cheney said something gay.
So does this filter turn “convicted pedophile” into Catholic Priest or is it limited only to the word Gay? It could all become quite confusing.
#24 – Good one!
#23 – His daughter is a carpet muncher. I think they should use carpet muncher or “fan of the whiskered biscuit” in place of lesbian.
#24 – bobbo, you’re going to upset Mister Mustard.
http://tinyurl.com/5m7xwx
#12 – Mr. Dodd
Oh fuck off, will you?
On other issues, the topic here is not whether homosexuals should be called “gay” or vice versa; it’s the pathetic ignorance of the dimwitted right wingnuts who are so opposed to any positive connotation of “gay” that they wooden-headedly change all instances of it to “homosexual”, no matter how absurd the resulting text is.
“Tyson Homosexual”. Pffft. I like Chuck’s idea of changing all instances of President Dick Cheney’s name to “President Penis Cheney”. Or perhaps “Father of the Whiskered Biscuit Muncher Cheney”?
#19 – Rich (or is that Dick/ Penis?)
>>I am occasionally “happy” or “buoyant”,
>>but definitely not “homosexual”.
Heh. Heh heh heh. Methinks the Penis doth protest too much! Don’t worry. It’s commonly accepted these days (other than by right wing bigots). And if you live in CA or MA, you can even get married!!
#27–ketchup==Mustard makes no case for pedophile priests or anyone else who goes out of their way to hurt other people. Haven’t picked up on that yet?
Brusque and foul mouthed, but a heart of gold. Certainly one who’s posts should be relished.
[Relished? Mustard and relish… Woo-Hoo! – ed.]
#7 Yes. All blacks come from Africa (originally, even if you try to say this or that guy was born in france or Japan).
#30–alobos==originally we all came from Africa so isn’t #7’s comment much more relevant and useful than your own? You did have time to think about it after all.