David Benkof likes to portray himself as a courageous man who tells difficult truths about gay life. Originally, he agreed to defend his many outrageous anti-gay positions on an August 22, National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association (NLGJA) panel. I was also scheduled to appear and was prepared to challenge his irrational and inflammatory arguments.
Unfortunately, Mr. Benkof announced today that he is withdrawing from the event unless I “switch to a different panel.” In an e-mail exchange, he told me that I should also pay for his plane ticket, even though I am paying my own way. (This was odd, as he boasted he was making a lot of money publishing in mainstream news publications)
To pull out at this late date and demand “travel welfare” highlights a deep character deficit and shows Benkof’s fear of a direct challenge to his lightweight arguments.
In my view, Benkof is only capable of fooling the uninformed and gullible with sophistic arguments that show his utter lack of knowledge and cluelessness to historical precedent. Benkof understands in his heart that he is deficient in intellectual heft and academic discipline and thus must avoid face-to-face exchanges of ideas. His cowardice is understandable, considering the flimsy arguments that he would be forced to defend – but still disappointing. It seems Benkof would rather hide behind the Internet and lob rhetorical bombs, than sit in the hot seat and answer questions about how he misrepresents himself, misquotes people and distorts the truth.
If I had to lie and mislead people as much as Benkof, I’d be shy about debating in public too.
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He demanded you pay his airfare?? what exactly was his logic behind that??
Comment by Emily K — July 2, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
Too Bad. I would have paid big money to see that.
Comment by gary — July 2, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
“. . . he boasted he was making a lot of money publishing in mainstream news publications.”
Even more odd is that I doubt mainstream papers would pay for a one-off opinion piece by an unsyndicated writer.
I see his pieces scattershot in papers all over the country, but I’d love to see evidence that he’s paid by the news outlets for those pieces.
So where does Benkof get his funding, if any? Is he being paid by Maggie Gallagher’s group, the National Organization for Marriage? The first pieces I saw from him that focused on marriage were on Gallagher’s IMAPP site, where he was roundly praised. Soon after, he established his own blog and starting showing up on op-ed pages. He — or someone — is expending a great deal of time getting those items placed.
Comment by jw — July 2, 2008 @ 11:15 pm
It is a mystery how Bianco/Benkof is paying the bills. I would not doubt if a right wing group was funding his garbage.
He claims to make money from his screeds, but this is highly doubtful. After all, mainstream newspapers don’t pay for op-eds. It seems that Bianco may be misleading people as far as getting paid by these publications.
Bianco seems to be all over the place, like a rootless hobo. His is currently in St. Louis. He will be in Seattle and Spokane in September. Then, he will be in New York City for the first five months of 2009. Or, until the mood strikes for him to ramble on once more.
Comment by Wayne Besen — July 2, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
Maybe he’s living off of the money he made while he was with Q Syndicate, or the money he made when he sold it.
Comment by Emily K — July 3, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Bianco just gave me the amount of token money he allegedly made from all of his total columns – it isn’t enough to pay the rent for one month in a housing project. If you add per hour researching and writing, it is not too far above minimum wage.
So far, he won’t answer if his screeds are backed by right wing money. I would love to know if any right wing organizations or “think tanks” are behind him.
Comment by Wayne Besen — July 7, 2008 @ 9:14 am
There are likely two choices: “yes” or “no”. Shouldn’t be too difficult — unless there’s something to hide.
Comment by jw — July 7, 2008 @ 8:15 pm