Religious right crackpot Charles McVety has been a busy little bible-banger lately, and as usual it’s all about S E X , raising the question:
Does this guy EVER get any?
(Whoops, sorry if that conjured up any unpleasant visuals. Next time I’ll use a trigger warning.)
Chuck’s latest Adventure in Sexland was an ad that everyone’s seen by now: a full page of feverish, won’t-someone-think-of-the-children hysteria objecting to public school kids being taught why they shouldn’t beat up and torment other kids who are “different”. The ad is a nauseating amalgam of bigotry and self righteous slop that would give most normal people the dry heaves, especially since it appeared not long after bullying claimed its latest victim. Most media decline to publish this kind of swill, their vetting procedures rejecting it before it can assault any human eyes. But at the NatPo, McVety’s ad slid through while the morning circlejerk was in progress and all eyes were shut tight, shouts of ecstasy echoing down the hallways to Production and Circulation… some even whisper in awe about the faint, euphoric grunts that could be heard as far away as Advertising Sales…
Well, I can’t think of any other reason for this goofy thing getting published, can you?
Outrage ensued and the NP issued an apology:
The National Post has procedures in place for vetting the content of advertising, especially advocacy advertising. The procedures are intended to ensure that such ads meet a standard of tone and respect that is consistent with furthering constructive dialogue about important public policy issues.
In this case, those procedures were not followed. An ad that should not have run in its proposed form was allowed to run.
This ad will not run in the National Post again.
…and fucked it up royally…
[…] and in its singling out of groups of people who have made choices about their sexuality with which the group disagrees.
Whoops! Another quick outraged boot to the NatPo’s nads, and that became:
[…] people with whose sexuality the group disagrees.
And I can finally say, Good On The NatPo for an apology well-done, if protracted, and after all, not one they were obliged to make. They’ve even launched an investigation to find out how it all happened (although it might be easier just to re-schedule the circlejerk for later in the day, after all ads have been safely vetted).
EXTRA EXTRA! What are we to make of this? SATIRE: the “tell” is that it sounds sane and rational.
