It has been perplexing to watch over the past couple of years as the media industry in this country has collectively taken up the cause for the trans community. It seems with near uniformity that a default defense of many LGBT𝜋 issues goes out without the barest of inspection over what they are defending. Note how so many times we have heard the shielded response of how drag performances are a time-honored art form – so why the sudden opposition to it?
At no point do they step back and look at how the inclusion of children is what has changed, or the current insistence that declaring a new gender is the new biological standard that has provoked reactions. The coverage reveals this blindspot toward – or unwillingness to address – the facts. When pride parades in Florida were canceled, Ron DeSantis and his alleged hostility toward the gay community were blamed, despite the cancellations happening prior to a bill even being signed. The bill is not "anti-gay" as it is frequently reported, but states that a public event could not include overtly sexual displays in front of families. It was a curious move when the organizers canceled out of fear of punishment, essentially an admission that they planned on sexual displays.
When a Miami area hotel had its liquor license placed in limbo over a holiday event staged by a drag show troupe, NBC News was entirely focused on the hostility from the governor, all while ignoring the specifics. It delivered the impression that DeSantis learned of the event and then punished the hotel after the fact out of intolerance:
The efforts by the DeSantis administration come as other Republican lawmakers across the country aim to restrict the centuries-old art form. Critics say these bills unfairly target the art form, which has deep ties to the LGBTQ community and violate the constitutional rights of free speech and free expression.
The facts are something completely different. The business authorities were aware of the show prior to its performance and did not halt the event. Instead, it informed the venue and the producers that underage patrons could not attend if sexual displays were involved. This means that the issue was not the drag show nor even the sexual components, which were known, and the show was still permitted to continue. Organizers just had to take steps to prevent minors from being exposed to adult-themed content; this was not something they enforced.
Now, NBC News is at it again, making a similar error in wading into the current Target stores controversy over its line of trans children's clothing. The outlet dove in despite some in the press already being tripped up by the issue. Last week, the Associated Press altered their coverage of this issue once their own claims of violence in stores were shown to be fraudulent.
This time, NBC News lectures about how conservatives are entirely to blame for controversies like the Target store issue, Bud Light sales, and other issues surrounding the current trans-pride wave seen in corporate America. The slanted idiocy is seen in the headline: "How Major Brands Were Forced Into the Conservative Plan to Target LGBTQ People." Anyone with even a passing familiarity with these corporate controversies knows the companies have been the ones forcing an agenda; what NBC News is citing – and clearly bothered by – is the pushback against these efforts.
In looking at the reactions to Disney injecting woke content in its entertainment offerings, the Los Angeles Dodgers catering to intolerant gay pride groups, and other ways companies are forcefully pushing their gay-trans support on their customer bases, you get the sense the network is intentionally missing the point. Desperate spin is in play as they hope to protect these activist intentions from the nefarious audience saying, "Nope, we want nothing to do with this."
In a revealing passage, we get exactly the problem NBC News runs into, as it actually poses the correct question – Why now? – but it had no interest in actually exploring for the answer. This was only a setup for the already established narrative. It was merely a pretext and not legitimate curiosity:
But several mainstream brands have publicly supported LGBTQ people for years. So what’s different now? Advocates and marketing experts say it’s the growing power of a vocal minority of far-right political commentators, conservative politicians and religious legal groups, which have led the calls to boycott the companies.
Note that there is no move to step back and look at this reality. Yes, brands like Bud Light have long supported the gay community and targeted it with pride merchandise and marketing. It has been the case for decades, and there was no outrage from its customer base. It was when the company elected to go into the realm of denying biology and forcing the agenda of accepting males who want to be called female as true women that pushback erupted.
Target is currently under fire not because of support for the gay community but for pushing the narrative of children being sexualized and questioning their own gender for marketing purposes. They were caught doing so, and it is evident in the effort made by the company and the press to deny they offered things like a tuck-friendly bathing suit for kids, despite the item being located and shared on social media. It was proof that the company was pushing an activist movement.
Target claimed it did not sell "tuck-friendly" suits for kids, but once the label (on the right) was shown on the kids' line the company made the move to shift the displays in another part of the store. pic.twitter.com/ocsCYVOoXu
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) May 31, 2023
And yet, NBC News wants to pretend that conservatives are creating this out of whole cloth. Denialism is woven throughout this piece. In mentioning the issue with the Dodgers and the invite of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, this too is couched as intolerance toward gays. Avoided entirely is that the issue was this particular group harboring its own intolerance toward Catholics, and that was the controversy. This is shown by the detail that the Dodgers have invited a number of gay-centered groups, and none of the others are being met with pushback.
The most obvious way we see the delusion from NBC News is in claiming a vocal minority is spurring a corporate recoil. This is desperate gaslighting. The companies are not reacting to select cranks on social media; their customers are abandoning them in waves. Anheuser-Busch sales have nosedived for over a month. Target has seen its market capitalization crater. Disney has endured repeated movies and shows being avoided to significant losses. These are monumental shifts by the masses, not select mouthpieces.
NBC News desperately wants to deny that what they are upset about is a reaction. Target is not being ignored, Budlight is not considered a toxic brand, and Disney is not losing ticket sales because of certain tweets, articles, or podcasts suddenly focusing on these companies. These are people having moves foisted on them by the businesses, and they are reacting to these efforts. What has NBC News upset is that they are not acting accordingly.
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