From the department of "You have *got* to be kidding me".

[ladyofleithian]

Got this from the grapevine and oh good sweet Lord, *no*. You know, there's satirizing your fandom, and then there's being a complete douchebag about it.

Just to give people the rundown of what happened -- basically, at Celebration VI, most people were hanging out, having fun, not really knowing that their pictures were going to be put into use later for a slideshow -- which wouldn't be that bad if not for the fact that the slideshow in question made a point of personally insulting them. People in the slideshow included members of the 501st, a non-profit charity organization that's helped Local10, the Floridian newsstation who covered the slideshow, in the past. GeekFemme covered some of the more offensive comments here. The ones that really make me angry are the less-than-subtle and less-than-witty comments regarding the men at the convention being unable to get dates, as well as insulting kids (yes, not even kids are safe). Not to mention Local10 aired it under the category of "News". Tell me, Local10 -- why did you feel the need to put mocking STAR WARS fans under the category of news? Was it a really slow news day? /sarcasm.It would be one thing to put positive coverage of Celebration VI under news, but the fact that they covered that slideshow is, to say the least, puzzling.

Second of all, cons like Celebration VI are supposed to be a safe haven for STAR WARS fans. It doesn't matter who you are; as long as you love STAR WARS, you're always welcome there. Something like this is another level of unacceptable -- no one has the right to harass anyone and make them feel unsafe, especially a local news station. I mean, these are professionals and (hopefully) adults. They should know better.

Third of all, the disclaimer in the slideshow that the person who made it genuinely loves STAR WARS. Then why are you mocking your fellow fans as losers who can't get dates? And treating other people at the convention as "freaks", basically? I'm not pulling the true fan card here; honestly, I am curious as to why the slideshow was necessary. Because honestly, if you're going to mock your fellow nerds at a convention devoted to celebrating STAR WARS, you have no place here.

Finally, there's the fact that when Local10 was called out on what they did, they posted a rather lame apology, then proceeded to out the slideshow back up, as well as delete comments, saying they had apologized to the best of their ability. Honestly, the best they could have done was swallow their pride and genuinely admit they made a mistake, but their so-called apology mostly boiled down to "sorry if you got offended" instead of "we're really sorry we did it" (as I recall). The worst part about all this is that Local10 has been against cyberbullying in the past, and considering that it was also on their Facebook page, yes, I think that would indeed qualify as cyberbullying. I can't help but wonder what they're trying to accomplish here.



And those are my two Republic credits on the matter. Sorry I ranted/overreacted -- it just really made me angry when I heard about it. Fortunately, there is a petition to fight back against Local10, in a sense: http://www.change.org/petitions/wplg-local-10-miami-fl-star-wars-fans-deserve-a-formal-public-apology. Go there and sign if you can. For human decency's sake. May the Force be with you.