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An open letter to Stephanie Grace, The Advocate and NOLA. com
Dear Stephanie Grace et al,
What a pathetic piece of journalism. Were you on deadline with nothing to show for the day's pay? The piece reads like it was banged out 10 minutes before deadline to fill a hole.
Sure, why not just play it fast and loose with a good man's reputation.
You say he should have known better but make absolutely no case for why that is. What— because he's a professional athlete you think he has a PR department to vet every organization that sells itself to him or that it's impossible for a big-hearted guy like him to be taken advantage of? Or because he's not up-to-date on every organization that takes the Lord's name in vain and, therefore, he's to blame?
Seriously? Blame himself? For what—trying to do good and having it blow up in his face? Did you not notice that one of the most respected athletes in the history of professional sports, who lives and works in the homophobic deep south just categorically repudiated the entire anti-LGBTQ, faux-Christian movement? Nope. That would require you to stop typing gleefully for a moment, high on the delusion that you're championing tolerance. Drew Brees did more for tolerance in his brief response than you will in your entire life.
On the other hand, I do get why you had a problem with his comment about people using the incident to make headlines and generate clicks. He was talking about you.
Let me get this clear in my head. You're sitting in the newsroom contemplating an opinion piece about this really thoughtful man in an industry with more than its fair share of idiots— a man who works very hard to avoid bringing negative publicity on, not just himself and his family, but his team, his profession and the entire state of Louisiana. In fact, he tries hard not to hurt anyone, ever. Now, this man steps on a cultural landmine while doing—what—yeah, trying to make the world a better place; and in so doing does the one thing he's tried for 20 years to avoid: inspire negativity and ridicule for all the aforementioned folk. Do you think for a second that anyone feels worse about this than Drew Brees?
All this takes place amid national social and political upheaval with the LGBTQ community right in the middle of it. With all this rich material to work with, THIS IS THE BEST YOU COULD DO? It never occurred to you how well this whole story serves as a commentary on the futility of trying to walk the straight and narrow in the age of — good grief, you've got me quoting Sean Hannity — the drive-by media?
Instead, you publish this yellow-tinged tripe confirming that it's all true: everyone is fair game, decency is dead, nothing good can last and no one here, not even the best of us, gets out alive; at least, not if the amateur media of South Louisiana has anything to say about it.
Dear Stephanie Grace et al,
What a pathetic piece of journalism. Were you on deadline with nothing to show for the day's pay? The piece reads like it was banged out 10 minutes before deadline to fill a hole.
Sure, why not just play it fast and loose with a good man's reputation.
You say he should have known better but make absolutely no case for why that is. What— because he's a professional athlete you think he has a PR department to vet every organization that sells itself to him or that it's impossible for a big-hearted guy like him to be taken advantage of? Or because he's not up-to-date on every organization that takes the Lord's name in vain and, therefore, he's to blame?
Seriously? Blame himself? For what—trying to do good and having it blow up in his face? Did you not notice that one of the most respected athletes in the history of professional sports, who lives and works in the homophobic deep south just categorically repudiated the entire anti-LGBTQ, faux-Christian movement? Nope. That would require you to stop typing gleefully for a moment, high on the delusion that you're championing tolerance. Drew Brees did more for tolerance in his brief response than you will in your entire life.
On the other hand, I do get why you had a problem with his comment about people using the incident to make headlines and generate clicks. He was talking about you.
Let me get this clear in my head. You're sitting in the newsroom contemplating an opinion piece about this really thoughtful man in an industry with more than its fair share of idiots— a man who works very hard to avoid bringing negative publicity on, not just himself and his family, but his team, his profession and the entire state of Louisiana. In fact, he tries hard not to hurt anyone, ever. Now, this man steps on a cultural landmine while doing—what—yeah, trying to make the world a better place; and in so doing does the one thing he's tried for 20 years to avoid: inspire negativity and ridicule for all the aforementioned folk. Do you think for a second that anyone feels worse about this than Drew Brees?
All this takes place amid national social and political upheaval with the LGBTQ community right in the middle of it. With all this rich material to work with, THIS IS THE BEST YOU COULD DO? It never occurred to you how well this whole story serves as a commentary on the futility of trying to walk the straight and narrow in the age of — good grief, you've got me quoting Sean Hannity — the drive-by media?
Instead, you publish this yellow-tinged tripe confirming that it's all true: everyone is fair game, decency is dead, nothing good can last and no one here, not even the best of us, gets out alive; at least, not if the amateur media of South Louisiana has anything to say about it.
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