Monday, The Huffington Post was kind enough to publish a satirical post I authored on HuffPost Comedy, "Microsoft, Apple Unite to Demand That the National Organization for Marriage Boycott Them." The premise was absurd. And the "public relations" people I "quoted" didn't exactly speak like PR flacks.
I quoted an "Apple" spokesperson as saying:
People should remember why they need the free WiFi in Starbucks: for Grindr! And without Apple, Grindr wouldn't even exist. Even our CEO is gay! Just how gay does Apple have to be before the NOMbies fire up their hate cannon and aim it at us? Bring it on, already!
I quoted a "Microsoft" spokesperson as saying:
So what gives? ... What about us? We've even got a rainbow in our logo. Boycott us, National Organization for Marriage! Now!
I also included this disclaimer at the end:
NOTE: This piece is satirical. All quotations are fabrications for the purpose of satire.
Apparently this and the fact that it was published on HuffPost Comedy escaped the eagle-eyed journalists at MSNBC, who reported the story as news Wednesday. For what it's worth, I was never contacted to verify my "reporting."
Oops.
Lesson to MSNBC: don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
UPDATE: MSNBC's Thomas Roberts issued a correction on his show today, April 5. I'd like to make it clear that I appreciate his work on MSNBC. In particular, I am grateful to him for being the only major journalist thus far to ask Maggie Gallagher to explain the National Organization for Marriage's repulsive, cynical, race-baiting, secret political strategies. I appreciate that my work caught his eye, and he owes me, personally, no apology. We are all human and occasionally make mistakes. He has behaved appropriately and brought the error to his viewers' attention, promptly and with humility, as any responsible journalist should.
Video courtesy of Carlos Maza at Equality Matters.