Yesterday, Channel Ten news presenter Ron Wilson seemed to suggest he thought Sydney’s gay and lesbian Mardi Gras was “disgusting”. Today, Wilson appeared to back the gay marriage campaign. Whatever happened to impartiality in reading the news?
Anyway, the gay community was pretty upset yesterday after Wilson injected his own commentary into an interview with Mardi Gras co-chair Peter Urmson. “Some of the spectacles you’re seeing I’m assuming would even make you cringe,” he posed. “It becomes an exploitation almost of a sexual image rather than trying to explore the diversity of lifestyle.” Urmson’s defense of his “colourful” community was shot down with: “There’s a difference between colourful and disgusting.”
On this morning’s news bulletin, Wilson issued a “clarification”. He could have chosen his words “a little better”, he confessed. What’s more: “I fully support the gay community and its campaign to promote the issue of gay marriage and I do congratulate the gay and lesbian community on the success of this year’s event. Please take that with sincerity.”
We do, Ron. But apologising with another apparent opinion hardly rescues your credibility as a journalist.
He’s been a 10 Sydney newsreader for 30+ years. Why did this only come out now?
I doubt Ron could slip behind a computer, edit vision or write a line to save himself. He’s out of that era when ‘presenters’ were paid millions to beautifully read the talented words of lesser paid writers. We’ve all moved on and so should Ron.
I’m sorry, am i missing something?
He said the exploitation of the sexual image could make you cringe. Rightly so.
His bosses told him to recant. What would you do?
Anyway, who said “disgusting”? I’ve just read the thing 8 times and all i see is ‘Urmson said…. disgusting…’.
There’s absolutely no contradiction in finding much of Mardi Gras offensive while fully supporting GLBT equality. Claiming otherwise is like saying that anyone who’d be put off by a wild hetero sex fetish parade through the middle of Sydney must hate straight people.
The Onion summed it up nicely: http://tinyurl.com/2fcudz6
Yep; I’m with Sancho, MLF and the newsreader. Elements of the Mardi Gras go far beyond the limits of decency established for the rest of society. It is lewd, sleazy and self-obsessed. It is also in some cases quite nasty in the portrayal of its detractors (without necessarily excusing the behaviour of those detractors). I certainly hope it does not represent the entire gay and lesbian community. Rather than promoting “marriage” of any kind, it seems more intent on promoting public orgies of casual sex.