Following on the heels of our in-depth look at openly gay men in journalism, AfterElton.com takes a look at another side of modern journalism: blogging. Rod McCullom , creator of Rod 2.0, has been on both sides of the journalistic fence. In addition to founding Rod 2.0, one of the most popular and informative gay blogs online, he has also worked for almost every major network news outlet.

We recently talked with him about the differences between blogging and mainstream news, his friendship with Perez Hilton, and what he hopes to achieve with his online writing.

AE: You have an impressive background in mainstream media, having worked for NBC, ABC and even Fox. AfterElton.com recently covered openly gay men in the world of journalism.
RM: I saw that.

AE: What was your experience like working for the big network news agencies?
RM: My experience working in television news, network and local, was actually very positive. I worked in news for a long time, from '94 until 2004, in different cities like Chicago and New York, and for several networks. It was very positive.

In every newsroom or studio I worked in, I was gay, I was out to the people I worked with, and it was never an issue. There were other gay reporters, anchors, producers, editors and such — a lot more people than you realize as you showed in your piece, which was very good by the way.

News is a lot more serious on television, so you find fewer personalities who are out, less on-air talent who are out, at least publicly. Not to say they aren't out professionally. There might be a number of reporters or anchors in this newsroom or that newsroom who everyone knows is gay, but they're not public with it … because of that whole issue of covering the news. You don't want the reporters or anchors, or even myself as a writer or producer, to inject too much into the story. If anything, if I had any problems, it was more race-related.

AE: Part of that series focused on Fox News and generated a lot of criticism of gay reporters and executives who work for what many feel is a very homophobic organization. Any thoughts on that?
RM: I did see that recently. … I'm still sitting on the fence about that one. I worked at the Fox-owned and operated affiliate in Chicago. I briefly did some work for Fox News when it was just fledgling, way back in the late '90s. At that time, it wasn't what it is today, so I didn't have any negative experiences.

Now in terms of how do I feel about people working there? I guess you can look at it two ways. On the one hand, if there are people working in the newsroom who are out, and they're working to lobby for change from within, there could be a producer or managing editor or a writer who can look at the copy, and the copy might have a homophobic twist to it, and they could change the copy.

In that way, they're working for change. Those types of things happen every day, and the average person watching would never know. That's the advantage of being behind the scenes.

On the other hand, if they are working in an operation like that and they aren't using it to their advantage or our advantage, then they aren't really doing very much. They're just working there. I think someone made a joke in the [AfterElton.com] comments that Fox staffers made up a large contingent of NLGJA [National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association]. I could believe that. Quite often, when people work in an environment where they are oppressed, they have to make a statement.

As an anecdote, when I worked at an NBC-owned station in Chicago, it had a huge contingent of black employees in all levels of management. Many of the black employees at that station did not go to the National Association of Black Journalists meetings.

AE: They were in a comfortable environment.
RM: They were in a comfortable environment. The meetings were held in the same building and held monthly. I worked there for four or five years and only attended a couple of them. It wasn't that I had anything against the NABJ, personally, but I was more integrated into that station, so I didn't feel the need.

AE: So how did you come to be a blogger?
RM: I came to blogging because when I discovered the gay blogosphere, I saw that there was a marked lack of content specifically targeting black gay men. There were a lot of black blogs, at that point, and a lot of gay blogs, but there weren't many that were black and gay, especially with the type of sensibility that I gravitate towards: newsy with some features, tight, well-written, as opposed to a more activist [type] of blog.

Or just rants. Most of the [other blogs] were ranty and political, and I wanted something a little different. So instead of writing letters or complaining about why this blog or that blog doesn't have more black faces, I decided to do it myself.