ABC Nightline tonight at 11:35pm ET

Tonight ABC's Nightline program will profile a high-level transgender (MTF) Microsoft employee. For more info, follow the link:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4394493&page=1

TMW featured in the Advoacte

Joanne Herman, the Advocate's regular columnist on trans issues, featured TransMediaWatch in her most recent commentary. "A Big Year on the Small Screen" looks at representation of transgender people from the 2006–2007 television season. Thanks for the shout out, Joanne.

Click here to read the full column.

You can also find a compilation of Joanne's writings at www.joanneherman.com

Watch this

Tune in to CNN's Larry King Live tomorrow where King will once again bravely step "inside the world of transgender people." You know, "men who go under the knife to become women." Despite this sensationalistic, reductionist promo copy, I'm willing to give Larry the benefit of the doubt. So tune in Friday, August 10 at 9pm ET.

On the CNN website, you can also email questions that you'd like Larry to address on this topic.

Click here to email Larry's producers in advance of the show.

Maybe you can ask what's up with reducing trans people to objects of surgery switcheroos in that darn copy. Maybe you can urge Larry to talk about the overwhelming social and economic factors (that pesky employment discrimination, the disproportionately high level of hate violence, or the lack of legal protections) that oppress within the wacky "world of transgender people."

Now that’s something I’d like to see discussed on the nation’s most watched prime time news program!

Et tu, Brutè? PlanetOut defames trans celeb.

We've come to expect anti-trans, defamatory news coverage from the likes of Michael Savage, but it is shocking to see it from PlanetOut.com -- an LGBT news source. Marc Breindel's article "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother" (6/26/07) published on PlanetOut.com is a tour de force in ignorance.

Here is a excerpt:

Alexis Arquette "wants to have her breasts and penis, too" ... "No wonder people question whether Arquette is genuinely transgendered or rather a drag queen hitching a free publicity ride on the transgender bandwagon."

We've come to expect better from the LGBT media, but I guess you might need to send them some educational email to pr@planetoutinc.com or by calling their communications staff at 415-834-6361.

Click here to read the full article.

"Christians" Fret Over Positive Trans Media

Okay, this is from the Christian Post Reporter, so try to ignore how the writer can't seem to use the term transgender in a grammatically correct fashion. Good news though -- the right-wingers are worried about positive portrayals of us in the media...I guess they rather see more Tucker, Savage and Beck.

Christian Post Reporter
May 23, 2007

By Lillian Kwon

Media Bias on Transgenders Raising Concerns

Growing media coverage and portrayals of the transgendered life have led some Christians to raise the red flag on a movement beginning to go more public much like the homosexual one already has.

Click here to read the whole article.

Tune In. Report Back.

Being a media watchdog isn't the best job in the world (because it means watching a bunch of terrible TV personalities trash talk trans people), but somebody has got to do it...and I'm hoping that somebody will be you. Here are the air times of the three worst offenders. Tune in. And if you catch trans bashing in the guise of "news" on these programs, please email me at simzec@gmail.com.

Tucker Carlson
MSNBC
Monday - Friday, 4:00pm ET

Glenn Beck
CNN Headline News
Monday - Friday, 7:00pm ET
Re-runs at 9:00pm and 12:00am ET

Michael Savage
Talk Radio Networks
Monday - Friday 4-7:00pm PT
WOR in New York
KNEW in San Francisco
WKRO in Boston
KRLA in Los Angeles

Demagogues of Defamation

Op-ed: Demagogues of Defamation

Words have power. Words in the media have more. I know you’ve read this before: Hate speech creates an environment where hate crimes are acceptable. But is anybody listening when those words slander transgender people?

Click here to read the op-ed in the Washington Blade (April 27, 2007).