Covering the coverage: Chris Crocker's "Leave Britney Alone" video

Chris Crocker found a national audience this week when he extended the story about Britney Spears' disastrous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards with his "Leave Britney Alone" video. (Am I the only one hearing Sabrina Matthews voice in my head saying "See, Alanis, it's not that hard to find irony"? Yeah, I figured it'd be just me.) Crocker's video spent time as the most-watched video on YouTube and saw him interviewed by ABC News.

I've found the coverage of the video and watching the news media's reaction to Crocker fascinating -- more interesting than the video itself. A lot of the coverage I saw had a freak show tone, treating Crocker like a punchline. While frustrating, I could rationalize that by noting that the story had a freak show tone before Crocker became a part of it.

However, QueerSighted's Kevin Hill noted another ABC News story (they're all over this one) that showed some really bad judgment. At one point, the article looks at the mockery Crocker has received:

Crocker said he has received a lot of flack for this and previous videos and could therefore relate to Britney being maligned. Comments from YouTube users posting on his video ranged from "Seek therapy NOW. This is NOT normal behavior" to "someone please shoot this fa**ot."

Comments like "Seek therapy NOW." certainly have their place in a story about the much-viewed video. But was it appropriate to quote the "someone please shoot this fa**ot" comment? If the point was to bring up another example of the flack Crocker received, couldn't they have found one that didn't threaten violence and use a gay slur? In his telephone interview, Crocker mentioned not wanting to reveal his home town because he received death threats in the past. Considering that, repeating a comment that calls for violence against Crocker is a really bad judgment.

Note: Just in case you haven't already seen it, Crocker's "Leave Britney Alone!" video appears after the break...