The voluable Society for the Promotion of Community Standards may need to consider a name change to the 'Society for the Promotion of Gay Media' after its fourth antigay press release in a single week. Targets this week have included MP Chris Carter, GayNZ.com, the immigration service (for treating same-sex couples the same as marrieds), and now the Queer Nation programme. In a 700-word promo for the show, the Society quotes extensively from an interview in last Thursday's episode with former MP Marilyn Waring, claiming she was interviewed by presenter Steven Oates, who not only didn't interview Waring, but didn't appear at all in the episode quoted (which is repeated on TV2 tonight at 12:15am). The apparent purpose of the press release is to promote Waring as an opponent of civil unions – which she is, as she feels same-sex marriage should be the goal – but the NZ Herald already reported this in August. Waring's discussion of civil unions on Queer Nation made up only a small portion of the interview, which was mostly a career retrospective. An article on Aardvark.co.nz suggests the following with regard to press releases: "Wait until you've got something really newsworthy to say before you start annoying editors and journalists with your press releases. If you keep sending them no-news announcements then they'll quickly learn to drop everything you send them into the trash can."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Sunday, 24th October 2004 - 12:00pm