What’s Behind The Advocate’s Amnesia Regarding RuPaul’s Drag Race?
The folks over at The Advocate might need to start taking ginkgo biloba. While CNN and various other LGBT media outlets (this one included) covered the story about Mary Cheney’s Facebook post where she questioned the social acceptance of men in drag versus white people in blackface, The Advocate posted its own online article with one glaring omission — Cheney was inspired to make the comparison after watching a promo on TV for RuPaul’s Drag Race. Other than a quick reference to RuPaul above the byline in the article, there is no mention of Drag Race; an important piece to the story considering it was what prompted Cheney to post her question on Facebook.
If this sounds odd, let’s go back in time to last year when Parker Molloy was a freelance writer for Advocate.com. During the airing of season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Molloy wrote several unflattering hit pieces about the show and its host and executive producer, RuPaul. While the posts sparked quite a bit of debate, they were biased and one-sided since they were written from the perspective of an outraged individual. Of course, we all know how that story ended. Molloy and Advocate.com parted ways last October after several messy fiascos involving her inability to stop lashing out at people on social media and in private messages.
Now as RuPaul’s Drag Race gears up for another season, it seems the editors over at The Advocate would prefer to not give the show any notable mention on its site at all. In addition to yesterday’s omission in the Mary Cheney story, the Advocate also neglected to sufficiently report on LogoTV’s announcement earlier this week regarding the premiere date for the groundbreaking crossover hit’s upcoming seventh season, merely offering a cursory mention of the “battle of the seasons tour” in an entertainment roundup column. Although the announcement was covered in depth on its sister site, Out.com, it just seems curious that a publication once considered a leader in LGBT media wouldn’t give more substantial coverage to RuPaul and LogoTV — especially in light of the negative write-ups from Molloy that it posted last year.
Jeremy Kinser
