I don’t know how we missed this, but we seem to have. I searched this site three different ways to find a diary detailing this and found nothing. So, how about we celebrate and congratulate one of our own, Mr. Keith Olbermann, for having received a major national award from a nationally-recognized organization?
Sounds pretty cool, huh?
Check this out as we roll over the fold to the underside...
Foundational Info:
There exists in the USA a well-recognized and very active group known as GLAAD – Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. GLAAD was formed in NYC in 1985 to protest the New York Post's grossly defamatory and sensationalized AIDS coverage.
From their website, glaad.org:
Since its inception, GLAAD's impact on our community's visibility has been far-reaching. Not only have GLAAD staff and volunteers changed the way lesbians and gay men are portrayed on the screen and in the news, we've also become a major source of resources and information for entertainment and news media decision makers. Entertainment Weekly has named GLAAD as one of Hollywood's most powerful entities, and the Los Angeles Times described GLAAD as "possibly the most successful organizations lobbying the media for inclusion."
Hard to argue with the idea that these folks have really helped change the way that the GLBT community has been portrayed in our media – print, television news and entertainment, and motion pictures.
The Awards Event:
Well, it just so happens that GLAAD sponsors an annual event called the GLAAD Media Awards. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives. And this isn’t a single event. Nosiree! There’s one in NYC, another in LA and a third in San Francisco.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the GLAAD Media Awards. The NYC event was held on March 28, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis. The LA event will occur on April 18, 2009 at the Nokia Theatre and the San Fran event happens on May 9, 2009 at the Hilton San Francisco. For ticket information, please see the GLAAD website here or the ticket-specific page on their site here.
The show in NYC covered awards in 41 categories. Due to time and other constraints, only 29 of the awards were made live. The rest were announced at the ceremony. The list of all this year’s Award Recipients is here. The award I’m reporting on recognizes the "Outstanding TV Journalism Segment" of the year. This year the award went to (most deservedly so, I might add) Mr. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC for "Special Comment: Gay Marriage is a Question of Love" Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
This is the Special Comment for which Keith was nominated and subsequently honored by GLAAD:
Despite the man’s family emergency, he took time to leave his sick mother’s bedside to travel back to NYC, attend the event, and deliver a very appropriate acceptance speech. Here is the entire award presentation, from the intro of the presenters, through the announcement of the nominees (listen to the crowd reaction as they’re announced), to the "envelope, please", to Mr. Olbermann accepting his award and delivering his acceptance speech:
"That's one down!"
As you can see from the list of nominees, he was up against some very good segments. What I know for a fact is that Keith was speaking his heart and mind without regard to who liked it, hated it, or might award him any honors for it. He didn’t do this to compete with anybody else. That’s not his way on issues like this. And I saw not a syllable of self-congratulatory speech on his show about this award. One only need watch the Special Comment itself, however, to see why Keith won this category. All personal bias aside, I am positive that he won by a wide margin. It is certainly his most moving Special Comment to date. Even I – a married, heterosexual, 50-year-old (boomer), registered Republican, white male – was moved nearly to tears. Very nearly so. Okay...so I cried a little. Who wouldn’t? The guy puts words together like no other.
Kossack Kudos:
So would you all please join me in congratulating a member of our community for several wonderful things:
- Having the guts to speak out intelligently, honestly, publicly, and on the right side of this highly-controversial social and civil rights issue.
- Taking valuable TV air time to devote to an important issue which affects a minority of people in this country.
- Deciding to attend this ceremony without prior knowledge of whose name was inside that envelope - despite a very important family emergency.
- Being recognized and awarded by the leading gay media-image group in America for his effort on behalf of our American gay community.
Congratulations, Keith Olbermann!
From All of Us Fellow Kossacks.
We’re proud that you’re one of us.
Most Sincerely,
Celtic Merlin
Carlinist