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An Exhibition of Conservative Paranoia

Exhibit 2: Rufus Wainwright Is "Mainstream"?

By Terry Krepel
Posted 4/27/2000

Accuracy in Media proves it has its elbow firmly on the pulse of pop culture in a recent commentary.

The article by Cliff Kincaid (scroll down to section titled "Homosexual Political Power") focuses on the battle between "Dr." Laura Schlessinger and homosexual activists, but quickly devolves into attacks on everything homosexual, right down to taking Washington Post critic Tom Shales to task for giving a positive review to the HBO program "If These Walls Could Talk II."

Kincaid then cites a magazine's list of top gay power brokers in the media: "They included David Geffen, the CEO of DreamWorks, who is given credit for bringing openly homosexual artists such as Rufus Wainwright and George Michael into the mainstream."

Well. I'm sure most people will be surprised to hear that Rufus Wainwright is a "mainstream" artist, including Rufus Wainwright himself. If you've heard of Rufus Wainwright at all -- which alone is evidence that you are NOT in the mainstream -- it's probably because he's the son of folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and not because of his homosexuality. I would be surprised if Wainwright's album on DreamWorks sold anywhere near 100,000 copies ("gold" is 500,000).

As for George Michael, he did not sign with Geffen's DreamWorks label until the mid-90s and did not "come out" as gay until after that infamous soliciting-a-cop-in-a-public-restroom incident, which occurred after joining DreamWorks. All of Michael's biggest records -- "Faith," the Wham! era -- came before he signed with Geffen; he has not had a major hit since then.

If Rufus Wainwright and George Michael are the best David Geffen can do to advance the homosexual agenda, as AIM suggests, he's not doing very well.

My diagnosis: No toaster for Dave this month. And so that Cliff Kincaid knows what's mainstream, a copy of the decidedly non-homosexual "Thong Song" by Sisqo, currently in Billboard's Top 10.

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