The Top Story: The GLAAD Network Responsibility Index

When GLAAD released its third annual Network Responsibility Index this week, it spurred plenty of positive headlines for ABC and HBO's inclusiveness, but it also generated a bit of commentary on the state of LGBT visibility on TV. You got to read our take on the report, but what did other outlets have to say?

Defamer

One common take on GLAAD's report is to lament the content overlooked by the organization and with a clip reel of Greek's gayest moments, Defamer regrets that GLAAD didn't include a look at ABC Family. I'm happy to see more people know that ABC Family is far more inclusive than most people to expect, though maybe if Defamer writers had heard about the network's inclusive tendencies around the time we noticed ABC Family, maybe I'd be planning a Middleman season premiere party.

Daytime Confidential

In further "too bad GLAAD didn't include this" news, Daytime Confidential was saddened that the study didn't include daytime television. The soap site notes that CBS's primetime scripted dramas may lack in GLBT characters and stories, but in daytime CBS's scripted dramas include two great examples of representation, with Nuke on As the World Turns and Otalia on Guiding Light.

Queerty

While most media outlets gave a quick overview of GLAAD's report, Queerty brought up an additional mark of shame, asking why Lifetime (whose tagline often gets jokingly rewritten as "Television for Women and Gay Men") and the once-groundbreaking MTV fare so poorly in the report ... which makes one sigh sadly over the network that gave us Pedro Zamora.

The Independent Gay Forum

CBS's gays, demonstrating the wide spectrum of the GLBT community

And then there's the sigh inducing, like the reaction inspired by David Link at the conservative-leaning Independent Gay Forum, who looks at the report and wonders, "whether we need GLAAD anymore." Link sees GLAAD's criticism of CBS as a sign that the media watchdog group is becoming too demanding:

But now we are in the position where we can complain when (CBS) only shows us five percent of the time - a number pretty close to our actual percentage in the population ... How helpful is it, really, that we know, to the decimal point, total network hours, percentages (subdivided by race, as well; Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives lose serious GLAAD-cred on that point) and year-over-year differentials of GLAAD-approved achievement?

Yeah, GLAAD's battle is over, it's time to pack it up. It's not like you can find software companies who don't understand the difference between describing yourself and using a slur or radio talk hosts who talk about throwing shoes at a transgender child. And, besides, as GLAAD noted, there are no problematic gay characters to be found on TV.

AfterEllen

At our sister site, I've been a fan of StuntDouble's "Lesbian Scientistics" posts since they debuted. AfterElton readers got a few chances to sample her ability to combine wit and graphic design with her take on the AfterElton Hot 100 and her Facebook Torchwood recaps. Hence, I was thrilled to see her take on GLAAD's report. I was particularly tickled at her ability to use a classic Looney Tunes image.