The Four Color Media Monitor

I looked at the CBR founder's Twitter page, and found this one from last month:

.@DanSlott shared off camera some of his & @AllredMD’s plans for upcoming #SilverSurfer comics & blew my mind! Really pushing the envelope.
— Jonah Weiland (@jonahweiland) July 25, 2014

So he's still associating himself with Slott, that very ultra-leftist who offended a Jezebel writer, among plenty of others, with a fanfiction wherein Dr. Octopus performs sexploitation of Mary Jane Watson. And he clearly hasn't had a negative word to say about it either. I searched their site and curiously enough, they didn't see fit to mention that particular commentary. Just what are they ashamed of? Does Weiland also think Mark Waid's profane tirades are trivial? His site staff never brought that up either.

The disappointment doesn't stop there. He also interviewed Mike Tyson - who was convicted of raping Miss Black Rhode Island Desiree Washington in the early 1990s - about an animated series he's voicing on the Adult Swim channel, where he's playing a "hero" who solves mysteries. But the only mystery here is why Weiland thinks a man who even made vulgar comments about his victim is somebody who deserves time in the spotlight. It's bad enough if the MSM covers this. Why must Weiland make the same mistake? Some of the commentors recognized the insult, and one said:

Anybody else feel kind've queasy at the prospect of a convicted rapist getting a wacky Adult Swim show?

Another replied:

I was thinking the exact same thing. We hear a lot of about misogyny in the sci-fi/fantasy/comics genres and here's a geek-friendly block of programming transforming a rapist into a "hero." What's next? "Around the world with Roman Polanski?"

Even if Tyson now regrets his crime - and he's done little to suggest he has - it's still in poor form to portray somebody who committed a violent felony as a "hero". And this also flies in the face of Weiland's admittal he bears responsibility for failing to keep the peace on CBR's message boards. Let's be clear: you say it's abhorrent to make repellent comments about somebody's simple critique of what they feel is a dreadful presentation of women in comics, yet continue to tolerate "professional" industry contributors who write stories potentially offensive to women, troll on other websites and curse at dissenters, to say nothing of interviewing men who committed criminal offenses and don't show genuine remorse, that's contradicting your previous discussion very badly.

And that wasn't the only abomination Tyson committed. There's also this:

Mike Tyson is a convicted RAPIST. He also is a terrible sportsman. HE BIT a guys ear off. This celebration of Tyson needs to stop.

The victim was Evander Holyfield. By paying lip service to Tyson, Weiland has effectively betrayed everyone hurt by that invective that turned up at CBR. Does he intend to keep promoting Brad Meltzer when he gets another comic to write too?

Just like the common citizen, even scriptwriters for movies and comics set examples, and have responsibility to shoulder for the same. And if they're not called out for their wrongdoing, then they'll only continue on a destructive path, run the gauntlet of encouraging similar attitudes, and draw fandom from shady characters, just the problem with a lot of these alleged writers who see nothing wrong with idolatry. Unfortunately, it looks like Weiland's choosing to turn his back on the antics of these despoilers, no matter how embarrassing it'll be for the medium as a whole. Slott's taken much deserved criticism on Spider-Man Crawl Space, and I think he was banished from there 2 years ago for antagonizing the other people on the board. However, at CBR, he still seems embraced, putting Weiland's sincerity under a big question mark. If he really wants to prove he's against the kind of awful experiences Janelle Asselin went through, then he's got to distance himself from all writers engaging even remotely in the kind of mentalities that lead to such horrors. And, he'd be setting a better example by coming to the aid of marginalized writers with better manners like Chuck Dixon and Mike Baron. But so far, he's not making serious improvements, and that only shows why CBR's not a very reliable website, and is failing to set a good example.

Labels: animation, conventions, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, Spider-Man, violence