Interview With Rod McCullom

RM: I kind of wouldn't. I wouldn't make any direct comparisons, because it's apples and oranges.

Certainly they both feed each other. It's a symbiotic relationship. Many bloggers go to mainstream media sources and link to stories, add more information, critique them or find some nuance, which is helpful. People in mainstream media look to bloggers for the same thing, for stories, nuances, directions, etc.

There's a different code of ethics on both sides. Mainstream media sources allegedly operate under a nonbiased perspective, whereas with a blog, you can obviously be as biased as you want. It's your site.

What happens is that lines get crossed or blurred. I do think the larger bloggers operate under a different code of ethics. I operate my site more like a newsroom. That's not to say I'm not biased. I'm not going to say I don't have an opinion, but I do try to give that extra information, look at it from both sides.

AE: What do you think blogging gets right and wrong?
RM: This is just my opinion, and everyone has a different perspective. Some people don't like my blog because my background is mainstream media, and then some people do like that.

What I do like about the blogosphere is that it allows [the chance] to grow and share information. It's opening up a lot of doors for opportunities, resources and activism. And God, it's helping so many people come out of the closet. It can reach gay men who don't live in major urban centers, who live in rural areas or suburbs, or in some of our more conservative environments. They can feel free to express themselves and talk and network and meet other people. When I came out, which wasn't even that long ago, or maybe it was — late '80s or so — there weren't blogs then.

Some of the problems with blogging that I see is — it's basically a microcosm of society when you're looking at a blog. It's a snapshot of society or culture or an aesthetic of where we are today. Quite often, that snapshot ... is unpleasant since people tend to talk differently when they're behind a keyboard.

You see that at AfterElton. People will write comments, and some of the things they say — for instance with Doug Blasdell from Bravo's Work Out … many of them were horrendous. Many of the postings I saw around the blogosphere were just very, very raw.

I think the problem that we're looking at is when people have a keyboard and a broadband modem and, of course, the send key, and they've preserved themselves for posterity. Years ago, when someone died, they said the things they said behind closed doors. It seems we've lost that line.

AE: What do you think of bloggers like Perez Hilton?
RM: I love Perez. We're buddies actually. I think Perez gets a lot of grief, but I think there's a market for Perez — obviously there is. Just look at his readership. Some people are going to say just because people are reading him doesn't mean he's right, and that could be a good argument, but I would say if so many people are reading him, he's addressing a need.

I look at the blogosphere as I look at supply and demand. That's what he is. He has a product, and people are asking for it. I think some of the things Perez says, some people might find a little edgy, but I will say what he does in terms of the community — he sort of needled Lance Bass into coming out, and Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight too, if I'm not mistaken. We can look at that as a good or as a bad.