Focus On The Rainbow

Have a seat by the campfire boys and girls as I tell you a tale about how one lovely lady and her co-horts in Canada took just about every news organization and a multitude of websites and blogs in the US and around the world for a ride to promote a “dating website” by taking advantage of the outrage over CBS Television accepting an ad from Focus On The Family for the Super Bowl.

It all started this past Thursday, January 28 when FOX News posted this story on their website written by Hollie McKay, which reads in part, After days of deliberations on whether to run a controversial Super Bowl ad from gay dating site ManCrunch.com, CBS has not yet reached a decision.

For those who may not have been following this great “fiasco of journalism”, the story refers to a website called Man Crunch, “Where Many Many Many Men Come Out to Play”, and how the owners of the website were trying to buy ad time from CBS for the Super Bowl.

Well boys and girls, as they say about a YouTube video, the story went viral. New articles with links to the Fox News story started popping up the same day on mainstream websites such as The Huffington Post, as well as LGBT blogs and websites, among the first was JMG.

Now, what a great many of the postings on blogs and websites have in common aside to a reference to the Fox News story, CBS and Man Crunch, is the “contradiction” by CBS to accept an ad from Focus On The Family, an organization which among other things is anti-gay, and as will end up happening on the 29th, CBS rejecting the ad from Man Crunch.

On Friday the 29th, the story hit, via a tweet from CNBC’s Darren Rovellno, that CBS would not accept the Man Crunch ad and again that story went viral too, this time with the likes of the NY Daily News, the New York Post, CNN and even later Friday evening on the CBS News website, which uses a source for their story, about their own company mind you, The Hollywood Reporter.

Before we break out the marshmallows for roasting and hearing the second part to our tale, I must tell you this.

When this writer first starting coming across the story on Thursday and reading the content of the FOX News article, the built in journalist and former CBS employee antenna went up and I figured something was afoot and not correct, which is why until this posting, there has been no mention of CBS/Man Crunch.

What led me to that observation if you will, and decided not to join the fray of the many, was the information regarding CBS and Man Crunch, the information of which was provided by Man Crunch. Every time “a CBS rep” was written it was done so with no name. Also in some of the articles there was an unsettling contradiction in what CBS was purported to be saying and Man Crunch’s statements and offering of information.

Even the “statement from CBS” as to why the ad would not be accepted was information provided by Man Crunch and again with no names of CBS spokesman or representatives. So needless to say the whole thing didn’t sit right and I opted not to add this blog to the ever growing media taking this all in.

Now you can break out the marshmallows, here’s the second part.

Late Saturday afternoon, January 30, I was doing my ”trip around the block” checking websites/blogs and JMG had another posting about Man Crunch, this one from Friday, and in the comments I noticed one from Jason D, in which he references to a website GayDailyHot (NOT SFW due to gay oriented ads) and a posting which says that Man Crunch is yet another site created by Simone Dadoun-Cohen, the very lovely young lady first mentioned at the beginning of this posting.

GayDailyHot wrote in part, Mancrunch isn’t a LGBT-owned business and it isn’t a “gay dating site” at all.. it’s just the “gay niche” site made by a clueless straight company for publicity.

It appears to be from the same gold-digging skank who brought you Establishedmen, ArrangementSeekers.com and Cougar Life. Those are owned by Simone Dadoun-Cohen, and this is probably just another way for her to manipulate people for money.

This company seems to be just using the gay community’s political strength for some cash. It looks like they made a “gay” commercial they knew would be rejected so the gay community would get angry and generate a lot of free press for them.

So with that in mind, I decided to have a good old fashion look-see. Join me and make up your own mind.

Established Men media contact .. Man Crunch media contact … same phone number, and also look and see how the websites are similar, here and here, on the same, how do the computer geeks call it, framework, and how the FAQ’s and answers are pretty much the same, here and here.

And there you are boys and girls, one smart classy cookie and co-horts up in Canada, who took advantage of the outrage of CBS selling ad time to Focus On The Family. Just who is Simone Dadoun-Cohen ? 

 ABC News’ Nightline once did a story on her and her website in an article on May 18, 2009 (which the video below is about) and was also mentioned May 13, 2009 in reference to dating sites in an article in the “money section” at the ABC News website, titled, Sugar Daddy Sites Attract Sexual Blackmailers

Have a look at the video to meet the former stripper who has bamboozled CBS plus a host of others around the world, using Focus On The Family, it’s anti-gay sentiment and the outrage of CBS accepting a “pro-life ad” from the group.

Dadoun-Cohen and co-horts have used that hot-button news story to promote a “gay dating service” website with no cost to her or her company while a great many well intentioned people found fault with CBS for creating a double standard in accepting an ad from Focus On The Family and not an ad from a gay advertiser. An ad which most likely wouldn’t have been accepted based on it’s amateurish production alone.

As PT Barnum was purported to have said, “there’s a sucker born every minute“, it would seem Simone Dadoun-Cohen and co-horts have certainly proved that in this little farce of using the passionate feelings against CBS within the LGBT community, and LGBT blog & website publishers and authors/writers, for their own profit, promotion and exploitation, where on one website male customers pay $49 monthly, plus additional fees for extra frills such as sending virtual gifts to, in the words of the website, a “perfect princess.”  as was reported in an article back in June of 2009 at the Toronto Sun. Dadoun-Cohen was a York University student earning between $800 and $2,000 a night stripping at a Toronto-based gentleman’s club, a world that completely contrasts her life now as a cushy suburbanite, married with three young children.

I do believe there are a great many lessons to be learned, the least of which for reporters, if it looks like a cow-pie, smells like a cow-pie, it most likely is a cow-pie and best not to step into it.

I learned that lesson the hard way a very long time ago on my great-grandfather’s farm.

The CBS Program Practices Commercial Clearance Report

Above is a link which shows the clearance report sent to Man Crunch and “signed” by Kristin Bartlett, editor, CBS Program Practices.

The report reads in part, CBS Standards and Practices has reviewed your proposed Super Bowl ad and concluded that the creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday. Moreover, our Sales Department has had difficulty verifying your organization’s credit status.

This writer is confident the document is authentic (and not another volley of bamboozlement) as it is similar to one which we used at the CBS Radio Group in Hartford, CT when I worked there in the capacity of national advertising continuity manager.

Mike Bawden of the website Brand Central Station left a comment on this posting today (Monday 2/1/10) in which he also feels the whole Man Crunch/CBS debacle is a sham.

Bawden conducted an interview with a representative of Man Crunch, Dominic Friesen, and posted the interview in its entirety this past Friday January 29. You can read the interview here.

Bawden finished his piece by writing, After all, the outrage we should feel here isn’t about gay dating it’s about the manipulation of an all-to-willing media and people who would rather believe in grand conspiracies and imagined enemies than take the time to think about the messages they’re being fed and how realistic or reasonable they are.

Brand Central Station is a marketing consulting business and website. Bawden wrote a followup piece late today.

In the online Tuesday edition of the Los Angeles Times, Dan Neil gives his take on the bamboozlement of the media.

That boys and girls is the final mention on this blog of Man Crunch, et al. Time to put the campfire out and put this story to bed.

On January 16 this writer was one of the first in the media to voice opposition to CBS Television’s decision to sell ad time during this year’s Super Bowl  to the anti-gay hate group Focus On The Family.

Yesterday CBS stood behind it’s decision to sell ad time and that it will not drop Focus On The Family as a Super Bowl advertiser. In an article at Broadcasting and Cable (B&C) reporter John Eggerton wrote in part, The network said it does not reject advocacy ads out of hand, and added that it would consider “responsibly produced ads from all groups” for the “few” remaining spots in the broadcast.

“We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on the issue,” CBS said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. “In fact, most media outlets have accepted advocacy ads for some time. At CBS, our standards and practices process continues to adhere to a process that ensures all ads — on all sides of an issue — are appropriate for air. 

“We will continue to consider responsibly produced ads from all groups for the few remaining spots in Super Bowl XLIV,” the network said.

A CBS spokesperson had told B&C Claire Atkinson last week that the network had vetted the spot’s script and did not expect to have any trouble with the video.

“It is not inflammatory or divisive,” a CBS exec told Atkinson last week.

The ad in question may not be inflammatory or divisive but Focus On The Family certainly is.

The following is an open letter directed to Les Moonves, President and CEO of the CBS Corporation.

Dear Mr. Moonves,

As a former and once proud employee of CBS Broadcasting I find your decision as head of CBS Broadcasting to allow Focus On The Family to buy ad time during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast, putting corporate profit above the fight against discrimination and to allow a group such as Focus On The Family which dictates what it deems should be the moral conscience and decency of Americans and to publicize themselves to a national and international TV viewing audience, to be unconscionable. 

When I was the commercial continuity manager at the CBS Radio Group in Hartford, CT and managed barter ads for program distributors such as Westwood One, I was not allowed to schedule certain radio spots.

I was not allowed to schedule ads from XM Satellite Radio as it was deemed a competitor. I was not allowed to schedule ads for Trojan prophylactics as the ad subject matter was deemed inappropriate for our four stations in the radio group.

And there were times I was not allowed to schedule ads from Radio Shack because the ad co-oped with XM Satellite Radio.

Part of my job was to bring to the attention of the Director of Operations and the General Manager of the Radio Group ads which may have “underlying political messages”, inappropriate content matter for the radio stations and ads which may be of a competitive nature to the radio broadcast industry (with the exception of TV or Cable Networks).

Should I be remiss in my duties and neglect to become “suspicious” of ad content, as I did once with Radio Shack co-oping with XM, my ass was handed to me on a platter, to put it in blunt terms.

So while the content of the upcoming ad from Focus On The Family may not be “inflammatory or decisive”, the same can not be said about the organization behind the ad.

Not only is your descision to accept advertising dollars from Focus On The Family an affront to LGBTs, women and those who believe in reproductive choice, it is a major disappointment I am sure for a great many loyal employees of the CBS Corporation and it’s divisions, this a Corporation which in its employee policy does not tolerate intolerance among the CBS Corporation and its various division’s employees.

Were I still working at CBS I would not write this communication to you for fear of losing my job.

Now that I no longer have to worry about that scenario, I can write this to be a voice for the thousands of fellow CBS employees I left behind and who may be afraid to express the like-minded view of this communication.

I use to say CBS was like a second family to me.

Today and until such time as you make the decision not to air the Focus On The Family ad, I am ashamed to have been part of the CBS  family. 

Sincerely,

Lyndon Evans

According to an articlein Friday’s edition of the Denver Post and as written by Electa Draper, the anti-gay group, Focus On The Family, has purchased two 30 second spots, one which will run prior to the Super Bowl coverage on CBS and the other during the game which will be held on February 7.

The ad’s production cost and actual buy time cost were not revealed by Focus On The Family but this year’s 30 second spots run between 2.5 and 2.8 million dollars. This year’s ad rates are down from last year’s spot rate of 3 million dollars when NBC covered the Super Bowl.

It’s reported by the Denver Post that 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and star quarterback for the University of Florida, Tim Tebow, will appear in the ad with his mother.

As Focus On The Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger puts it, the Tebows will be sharing “one of their many personal family-affirming stories”. The Focus On The Family ministry is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Needless to say I’m extremely disappointed with my former employer, CBS Broadcasting, in it’s decision to sell ad time to a gay hate group.

I know times are tough in broadcasting for ad revenue, both radio and TV (ergo my downsizing in 2006), but to sell ad time to a hate group which professes to spread the gospel and “family values” is unconscionable.

I suppose if we were back in the 30’s and 40’s CBS would be selling ad time to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

As I said to my boss the day I got the news I was being downsized, “as they said in the Godfather, it’s business, it’s not personal”.

This time Sonny it’s personal.

Dr James Dobson “Same-sex marriage would lead to marriage between daddies and little girls … between a man and a donkey”

Dobson and Medved warned of purported pro-gay subtext in movie “Happy Feet”

“[The homosexual] agenda includes teaching pro-homosexual [sic] concepts in the public schools, redefining the family to represent “any circle of people who love each other,” approval of homosexual adoption, legitimizing same-sex marriage, and securing special rights for those who identify themselves as gay. Those ideas must be opposed, even though to do so is to expose oneself to the charge of being “homophobic.”
– “Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide” by James Dobson

Spongebob will make you gay

A writer once stated, “Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.” When we become so accommodating of evil that we neither recognize nor oppose it, our moral collapse is imminent.

The apostle Paul described a similar society in Romans 1, which addressed the epidemic of homosexuality that was rampant in the ancient world and especially in Rome at that time. He wrote, “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (v. 29-31, NIV).

In an e-mail signed by Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy, Focus says the measure “helps protect millions of children from radical indoctrination in the homosexual lifestyle,” and “safeguards religious liberty in our most populous state.” - in regards to Prop 8

Tuesday evening David Letterman and staff chose to make fun of new Obama appointee Amanda Simpson who is transgender.

One would expect the likes of Fox News’ crew of anti-gay talking heads like Bill O’Reilly and others to make fun of, as they have, this Obama appointment, but for Letterman and his staff to come up with this sophomoric attempt at humor which only continues along the line of “I was tricked into thinking he was a she” which has been used as an excuse for assaulting, and in worse case scenario, murder of transgenders, just defies logic.

In many cases I have been able to find humor in “taking pot shots” at the LGBT community when others in the LGBT press and blogs become absolutely livid. But not this time. I can find no humor, a) making fun of an Obama appointee in such a manner and b) the way the skit is carried out which, whether intentional or not, sends out another stereotypical message against the transgender community.

You would think that with the bad press Letterman has gotten in the past year, he would be gun shy and steer clear of more bad press. Letterman has not just shot himself in the foot, this time he has shot himself squarely in the ass.

Woe be it to Letterman’s production company and CBS when the fallout starts with trans activists and others, who will no doubt start an aggressive campaign in making complaints to network advertisers of The David Letterman Show, and also local o/o’s and affiliate advertisers.

As the current economic times are, broadcasting outlets, both network and local can ill afford to lose ad revenue. And that could very well be the fallout for this dimwitted attempt at humor.

Dave, this time you may have bitten off quite a bit more than you can chew my friend.

January 6, 2010

David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
1697 Broadway
New York, NY 10001

CC:  Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mr. Letterman,

I am writing on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, to express my disappointment over the inappropriate and incendiary remarks made on The Late Show with David Letterman last night on the appointment of Amanda Simpson to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The decision to ignore the fact that Ms. Simpson is incredibly well-qualified for this vital national security position and focus instead on her gender identity reflects transphobia.  Ms. Simpson’s appointment represents meaningful progress for the LGBT community and in particular transgender Americans who have faced significant and well-documented discrimination in the workplace and their communities.

You may not be aware that the punch line in your skit has been used as a defense in nearly every hate crime perpetrated against transgender people that has come to trial.  For example, the “trans panic” defense was infamously used by Allen Ray Andrade, who was convicted in 2009 of beating 19-year-old Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher after learning of her gender history.  According to media reports, it has also been the main defense employed by Juan A. Martinez for the killing of Jorge Steven López Mercado, 19, in Puerto Rico last November.

Your skit affirmed and encouraged a prejudice against transgender Americans that keeps many from finding jobs, housing, and enjoying freedoms you and your writers take for granted every day.  We ask that you apologize publicly to Ms. Simpson and the transgender community for this unfortunate episode.

Sincerely,

Allyson Robinson,
Associate Director of Diversity for Transgender Issues
Human Rights Campaign