I found a mention on The Wild Hunt about an article in today’s Atlanta Journal Constitution about Pagans.
It’s from 2006 and is one of the worst bits of fluff I’ve seen in a while. And, as Jason at Wild Hunt point out, this is a ridiculous bit of recycling. Why in the world would you repost an almost 3 year old article? Didn’t the writer do something about summer activities or the Fourth that would be more relevant to the day?
Proud pagans party for magical time
Now I understand this is from a column where the writer goes around Atlanta seeing what people are doing. But if he treats every group with this level of silliness, I’m surprised if he ever gets to go anywhere twice.
There are elements of the Pagan Pride picnics that can certainly seem a bit odd to people who aren’t used to the sub-culture. Hell, some of it just seems odd to me and I am pretty used to it. But to treat the whole thing like one big party just for fun doesn’t offer anything of value to any readers, no matter how they feel about Pagans. I think the costumers at Atlanta Comic Expo got better coverage.
Side note – they seem to reprint these columns pretty regularly.
“Among attendees at the recent festival were Atlanta witches; gals from Smyrna’s “Sylvan Forest” Wiccan community, who believe in unicorns; and reps from a seminary in South Carolina “Where Wiccan Families Work Together.” The Druids came, too. (No, not from Druid Hills.)”
I wonder if he would have referred to a Christian or Jewish group that way. Hey the gals from St. John’s Catholic Church believe in zombies (dead guy gets up, walks around, talks). Or the boys from the local temple say they used to have a magic box that made them tough (Arc of the Covenant is said to have made the Hebrews invincible for a while).
I think this treatment of any religious group would annoy me. There are plenty of ways to write a fluff article about pagan Pride day without being so dismissive of people you are covering. Or just ignore religious groups all together. I’m sure any group would prefer being ignoring to being made fun of.
Tags: journalism, medai