I was recently on a plane bound for Panama City Beach, Florida and after working ceaselessly on my first post for Crasstalk, I decided it was time for a break from being so talented all the time. I put away my warm Macbook and got out the magazines. With me on this trip was the issue of Out for May 2011 which includes their list of the Top 50 most influential Gays. Imagine my surprise to find out Nick Denton is influential.
So right there on page 74 is a lovely piece called Where is the First Gay Food Network Star?, complete with a collage including the fabulous mug of Paula Dean. Whilst admiring the loveliness of PD my eyes drifted over to the larger font to the right which read:
34. Nick Denton, CEO GAWKER MEDIA, 44
Here’s what Out had to say about #34, Nick Denton complete with mention of the redesign:
In the old days Nick Denton went out of his way to avoid interviews, letting the success of his online empire speak for him. No longer. A rash of recent profiles — in New York, The New Yorker, and most recently The Atlantic — have sought to understand what makes the new-media maverick tick. A major redesign of his sites switched off swaths of regulars, but Denton is in this for the long haul and won’t let a road bump deter him from redefining the rules of journalism, whether you’re with him or not. Previously 34th [ OUT ]
Wow. I didn’t realize he was that well known, I mean it’s not like I see him across the room at parties. While. I’m. Sitting. At. Home. In fact I used to get all my Hollywood news and Blind Items from Gawker. I don’t visit Nick Denton’s Empire since the last time I checked the site is still largely unusable, and overrun by fascists. Even if by some miracle of good problem solving the site was eventually made to be stable, I’m not heading back since, IMO, Denton was kind of a douche about the whole thing. I wonder if any of the childish commentators still left on Gizmodo are even aware Nick is gay. I stopped commenting on Gizmodo articles since the audience there didn’t seem to welcome my brand of Geek which features a little bit of fabulous. I saw frequent complaints that Gawker posts were cross posted to Gizmodo.
Nick’s power driving over any “road bumps” is nothing new. He had nothing nice to say about bloggers back in 2005. It’s also not surprising that Nick is seemingly unwilling to admit anything even went wrong: “I don’t have a huge amount of time for noble failure.” – [newyorker] It’s this kind of uplifting dogma, I believe, that lead Nick to his consistent rank of #34 among the top of the gays. Nick was also #34 last year. I actually wonder who approved this photo for him. He’s got his mouth open in it like he’s yelling at someone to ban another commenter, and also to stop being so damn noble while they’re at it.
Since #34 is such a seemingly arbitrary number, and also because I don’t really care for the idea that there can be no nobility in failure, lets review how some others fared in this years Top 50 and see if we can find a quote from each of them.
Immediately following at #35 was Robert Hanson, global president of Levi’s who recently described his company as not where he’d like it to be, but “fixated and hungry.” Just like a runway model I would suppose. [Nick Forum via MensWeek ] Robert is responsible for channeling significant funds from Levi’s into HIV/AIDS programs, so I’m not clear why he placed below Nick. Maybe that’s not as influential? I’m sure the race for #34 was hard to call. [Image NGLCC]
Jodie Foster placed at #46 this year, down from 43 the previous year. I’m guessing this is because she can’t really be bothered: “But now I really don’t want to work unless I really, really care about a project.” She says. [brainyquote.com] I guess that explains why she appeared in the The Beaver and nothing else since a guest spot on The Simpsons in 2009. Still, I loved her in Contact and I bet we all loved her in Silence of the Lambs. I’m guessing The Beaver will be somewhere in the middle.
Matt Drudg
e placed at #39, down quite a bit down from 15th in 2010. Matt’s a conservative blogger, author of the The Drudge Report. I found a few gems but I think I’ll go with “All truths begin as hearsay, as far as I’m concerned.” [brainyquote.com] I have to say at first glance I thought this sounded a bit like Matt would have a basement apartment lined floor to ceiling with tin foil but I’m going to choose to take the high road and say that a healthy dose of skepticism never hurt anyone. Out claims his website isn’t pretty so here’s a screenshot. As my Aunt Pearl told me about my one and only attempt at floral design: “It lacks any line or design, but otherwise it’s fine.”
Continuing on lets review a few Top Gays that were ranked superior to #34 Nick Denton, like internet naughty child turned nice Perez Hilton. Perez appeared on Ellen in Oct in 2010 and had this to say: “I really want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem [..] be the change that I want to see in others [..] I’m going to force myself to be funnier or smarter” [Mediate.com] I think it’s working, I was worried that a softer Perez would fall off the map but it appears that his influence has only gotten stronger.
#9 Joe Solmonese is President of the Human Rights Campaign or HRC. That’s the organization behind all those pretty Blue and Yellow equal signs on all our cars down here in the Gayborhood. In trying to find a quote from Joe I have determined that the man has a singleness of purpose in regards to the fight for equality and civil liberties for gays. He’s always talking about this fight. “Words have consequences, particularly when they come from a faith leader.” Joe said, in response to a leader from the LDS Church telling his flock that Homosexuality can be ‘overcome’. Joe is obviously a force to be reckoned with and I can see clearly why he’s number 9.
#6 Shepard Smith – Clearly if this list is based on influence then a gay man on Fox News is like having an agent behind enemy lines or something. I was going to make some sort of sports metaphor but I honestly don’t understand any of them that well. This is why I have to respect Shep for representing on a network that has Sarah Palin on payroll. Just the same I think it’s still true that one is judged by the company one keeps. Check out this quote: “We have a product for sale called news, and I’m a salesman” [brainyquote.com] It’s funnier when you read it with the voice of Ron Burgundy.
All in all I’d say this entire ranking thing is hogwash. Except that I don’t use terms like hogwash. Or even malarkey. Not in mixed company. I can and will say it’s all a sham. It’s not like you can really rank the gays unless there’s a swimsuit competition and then also evening wear, as well as some sort of talent portion. But seriously, #2 Ellen isn’t that great in a dress and there’s only so many times you can sit through #3 Anderson Cooper while he does that yodeling number.
To check out the list on your own, see this month’s edition of Out.
