Star Tribune, Palau, and Pride

Thanks to J at mesouthern for commenting with Doug Grow's editorial. Grow explains that the Star Tribune has no bias in its decision to sponsor the Twin Cities Festival organized by evangelist Luis Palau, but the perception may look that way.

However, Doug Grow has a quote that infuriated me for several reasons:

Ben Taylor, senior vice president for corporate communications, explained the newspaper's participation simply. It's a way of getting the Star Tribune name before a massive target audience of young people. The newspaper sponsors all sorts of events, he noted, ranging from Gay Pride functions to the Basilica Block Party.

Do people really need to pit christianity and the GLBT community every time religion and politics are mentioned? There are so many people working to reconcile churches right now, and many faiths are coming around. Just because most Baptists harbor hatred against the GLBT community does not make it appropriate to make blanket statements. The Universalist and Metropolitan Community churches would certainly take offense.

Also, the Star Tribune REFUSED to run Twin Cities Pride advertisements this year.

Ben Taylor, Senior Vice President of Communications for the Star Tribune told KSTP news: "Our feeling was that this was an advertisement for an event, and two men kissing was clearly meant to be inflammatory.”

Star Tribune Publisher J. Keith Moyer in the Star Tribune: “we felt the imagery submitted was gratuitous and counterproductive to the ad's purpose."

So much for liberal media.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the Twin Cities Pride website, which has the story on the Strib's refusal to print the ads, as well as the ads themselves in .PDF format.