As many as fourteen media outlets,
including the Washington Post and Pink News, have
reported on a bogus story that claims singer Britney Spears has been
named the ultimate gay icon.
The
story first appeared on the Examiner.com's website and was
written by Orange County Gay Culture Examiner Fernando Palazzo.
“A survey from Orange County's
Equality Project asked 1,000 gay men all over Southern California who
is the greatest gay icon,” Palazzo wrote. “Britney Spears won
the poll with 31 percent of the vote.”
The group's Joel Waddell slams Lady
Gaga in the story: “Lady Gaga is a talentless scam artist. She is
to the gay community what Hitler was to Germany – completely
destructive.”
UK
gay glossy Pink Paper, the Toronto Sun and
the
Washington Post's Celebritology blog are some of
the outlets that eagerly repeated the claim.
The Post's Jen Chaney and Liz
Kelly questioned the survey's findings: “We can only conclude that
Orange County, Calif., is home of a micro-saturation of gay BritBrit
fans who are all extremely motivated voters. Either that or they
thought they were voting for Lady Gaga.”
Gay
weekly the South Florida Gay News reported that it could not
find any evidence to support the Examiner.com's story.
The paper noted that the group – and
its spokesman – quoted in the story appear to be fake and that
Palazzo has not responded to numerous email requests.