Did AOL fire Tommy Christopher for criticizing Playboy?
June 5, 2009 by William K. Wolfrum
It went a little something like this: Writer Guy Cimbalo submitted a rape-fantasy wrapped inside a humor column about Conservative women he’d like to “Hate F***.”
Playboy then showed it’s support for rape-fantasies by posting the piece.
Tommy Christopher, who wrote at the Daily Politics blog on AOL, called out Playboy on the horrifyingly sexist article. Led by Conservative bloggers, the reaction was loud and swift, spreading over social network sites like Twitter.
Playboy pulled the piece of its site.
AOL then showed it’s support for rape-fantasies by firing Christopher for writing about the issue.
AOL, which has surprised many for years by continuing to exist, is under the umbrella of Time Warner. And Time Warner also has a business relationship with Playboy. And while Christopher hasn’t come out and said he was fired implicitly for the Playboy fiasco, he hasn’t denied it, either. Here’s a little of what he’s said so far, via his site:
“I am grateful to AOL for the opportunities they’ve given me, but I disagree strongly with their decision to fire me. Considering the amount of external traffic I drive to the site, it seems like a poor business decision. Given the strength of content like my Playboy article, it seems like a poor editorial decision, as well.”
Christopher loudly touts himself as a liberal, but thus far this story has made him a cause célèbre on right-wing blogs with Hot Air, Newsbusters and many others keeping track of the story.
Christopher has written that he will explain the situation more today. At this point, he’s deserving of the respect and support of political bloggers from both sides of the table. Because blogging gigs aren’t easy to find, and to see Christopher get dropped so easily and wrongly should set off some alarm bells.
Regardless, AOL has some explaining to do. Because the AOL homepage is a sexist tundra, and when you add this to it, they truly appear to be an organization that profoundly hates women.
See more from Tommy Christopher here.
–WKW
He “loudly touts” his liberal viewpoint because it’s genuine; I think you do him a little bit of a disservice here by insinuating that his friendships across the political spectrum make that suspect.
Otherwise, totally agree with you here.
I wasn’t trying to be snarky with that. Meant it more that he’s not one to shy from that label. No insinuations were made.
Bottom line, if you know Tommy, the guy has a heart of gold.
Hope to see you guys on BTR Saturday at 9:00 PM
Guests (So Far)
Tommy Christopher
Media Lizzy
Maybe Caleb. (that’s his first name)
I’ve been trying to get the “Guy” from Playboy. No return call.
Tommy passed down the show a few months ago to me, and, this just sucks.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Unusable-Signal
QFLOLZ.
.
Eff AOL! Neo-Liberalism is a mental disease. Conservative women are HOTter! But it’s not hard to imagine the justified ‘Liberal’ outrage if say, Hustler Magazine ran a disgusting parody where Rush, Hannity, Beck, Savage and Ann Coulter gang-rape and tickle-torture Katie Couric, the PIAPS, and then Nancy Pelosi.
Imagine. The outrage would last for months in the MSM. There would be calls for firings and boycotts. NOW would be apoplectic. Poor little outraged, hypocritical Libs.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
joke about raping women
if they are conservative
EVIL freedom lovers…
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
sex is the height of evil
so is photography
but not pornography
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
always rape women…
who are conservative
they’re just gender traitors
.
I think if the playboy article had been a parody, there would have been fewer complaints.
Didn’t read the article…but “hate fuck” is completely different from “rape.” It’s mutual between two partners, just a little kinky.