March has been the usual bad news month for furries.  It started with The Dependent Magazine piece on Vancoufur answering the age old stereotypical over generalized  question:

“1. They are a community who enjoy dressing up as, acting like, and celebrating anthropomorphized animals (read: animals with human characteristics).

2. It may also be a sex thing.”

Next came Adult Swim’s “Check it Out” where the much misinformed main host came out with, again usual stereotypical   “anatomically incorrect fursuit” . Finally  we have a from  New Zealand   comes “Fur fetishists ‘just nature lovers ‘”  a fine example of press bias I have seen sine the Bush 2004 elections and miss-coverage of the tea party.

What one need to know the articles I listed above are just a sampling what is out there and should be an example what wrong with the media.  There are a few areas of observation I would like to make, first how the media reports the story and furries weakness in dealing with the media and what can we do.

A lot what I have to say come from my own experiences as somebody who is an orthodox Christian, Pro Life, former Fundamentalist now reformed Christian and political volunteer. I see similar methods the reporter employs when reporting on furries to many political groups and causes I supported.  It was my study media bias in reporting of furries that eventually drawn me into the fandom.

First is it not your story that the focus, it about the reporters.  Too often I hear a reporter solicits furries for news stories telling they   want to report our story but what the reporter really want is  corroboration on his or hers story.  The media has moved over the decades from reporting the story to making the story.  See his line reporting in mot the Vancoufur and Christchurch piece.  The reporter comes with a premise and theme than find those subjects that fit the theme while ignoring the rest. For example I see this in political reporting. When the reports want to pro-life or tea party members as angry white males they will not come to a person like me. They will dig around till find those who fit the profile and the report is not beyond embellishing or taking a person out of context to fit the profile.  The same can be said about reports on furry fandom. Make no mistake of the deliberate casting of furries as people dressed in animals suits by show just fursuiters and interviewing tweaks.

Another aspect of bias reporting I see the use of words.  It is not loss on me how agenda driven reporting uses labels for example (negative) anti abortion vs. (positive pro-life).  Conservatives are angry and angry progressives simple are raising awareness.  In media furry lingo I see we are people who dress up in animal suits and a fetish. Never mind if the report did an honest  count at any Furry convention would show this presumption is in error, ditto to  the number of furry who practice furry as a fetish.

This brings out another issue in the media: how do they get their information. The answer is from other reporters and reports.  Simply put furries are people who dress up and have sex because a report or media source reported furries are people who dress up in animal suits and have sex. It Is why it almost impossible for a fur to give a more balanced side, the furry does not fit the profile the report wants and not the source for the report’s information.

The next issue is how we got into this mess as furries. I am going have to leave this to my own opinion and speculation. I believe the reason is many furs were not exposed or been targeted by the negative media. As a result furries are too trusting of the media. Many furs are moderate tot left of center and a good part are gay. The liberal media are their champions and as a result they may be lured into a negative media because past favorable media exposure Then again there some furs who will just give in to narcissistic tendencies.

Finally what can we furs do about it?  First   avoid the media if possible.  Second confront the media. What I am not saying we protest or harass the report but perform analysis one the story noting any discrepancy between the story account and events. Then gather credible evidence then confront the media with the facts.   Finally we can tell our own story; with a large pool of talent, furs do not need outsiders to tell our story.  Why can’t the fandom   support and produce our own documentary of furry fandom.  As s one time conservative, we had the same issue with media bias; the solute was talk radio. Conservative Talk radio opened an independent channel of communication to the public bypassing the mainstream media. Would we furs come up with a similar infrastructure bypassing the media and talk directly to the public?

In the end we may not be able to change the media but we can bypass the mainstream media. If anything, remember the media is not furry fandom’s friend.