Anthrocon 2011 media coverage roundup
Another year has come and gone for Anthrocon's 4,400 attendees. But what did the media make of it all?
Local stations WTAE (video, slides) and WPXI (video) gave mostly superficial coverage, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (photos) went into a little more depth. [Higgs Raccoon, baracudaboy, Wild`Bill`TX]
The convention was also picked up by Reuters, who posted a short piece based on organizers' statements.
In a story likely to be repeated in 2012, furries were blamed for booking out local hotels. Conversely, Anthrocon's CEO complained of a lack of hotels, telling the Post-Gazette that "when downtown hotels became fully booked in mid-May, [registration] dropped off dramatically." This helps explain this year's growth rate of 3.8%, compared to double-digit increases in prior years. (Somehow the parade count rose over 19% to 854.)
Meanwhile, 10th St. sub mogul Cory Robinson reported two months of business in five days:
We love furries. They're just people having fun, and they don't hurt anybody.
Early-rising furs got the chance to wave at the President of the United States, in town to speak about high-tech manufacturing grants. [Chilly] Naturally, conspiracy theorists suggested that the President was secretly a furry.
Pittsburgh's Kiss 96.1 also dropped by and mentioned Anthrocon during its 'Morning Freak Show'. [EagleBeagle] Their coverage was relatively positive, despite bringing up a supposed 'litter box' (possibly triggering comedian Joe Rogan, who had little nice to say [dwylfin]):
There is a sexual angle, but what we've learned over the years is that not every furry participates in the weird sexual aspect of it.
Perhaps the most controversial coverage came from the Howard Stern Show, which sent "Wolfie" down to interview anyone who wouldn't walk away when the topics of furry porn, bestiality and cleaning semen off of fursuits were broached (part one and two). [Kindrift]
Cartoonist Rob Rogers used the con's presence in Brewed on Grant to joke about local sports and Pittsburgh's love of spandex. [AnthroCoon] Of course, Rob happens to be board president of the ToonSeum, which raised $11,522 at Anthrocon through an auction and comedy show.
Given the weekend's sports schedule, it was inevitable that furs would be compared to Red Sox fans. They were found to be "pretty harmless", although one blogger suggested that the fursuiters were actually Red Sox fans in disguise. [lupine52]
Boomer the Dog got air time with KDKA, who had one question: "Why?" [dwylfin] While the coverage was good-humoured, KDKA's selection appeared to disappoint Dr. Conway, who noted that Boomer had never been a registered member – perhaps explaining his focus on room parties.
As for Gawker . . . well, they seemed to like pink fursuits. [baracudaboy]
Lastly, Beaver County Times took a few photos and included the topic in its video roundup, while Deadspin focused on photos of the non-furs.
About the author
GreenReaper (Laurence Parry) — read stories — contact (login required)a developer, editor and Kai Norn from London, United Kingdom, interested in wikis and computers
Small fuzzy creature who likes cheese & carrots. Founder of WikiFur, lead admin of Inkbunny, and Editor-in-Chief of Flayrah.
Comments
Well, Joe Rogan was probably more upset that hotels were booked for Anthrocon leaving less room for people who like watching grown men beat the snot of each other (Joe Rogan is a commentator for the UFC and they had a fight there the Sunday the convention was in town).
It's unfortunate, I'm sure the Baked Furs were good fans of his, and I certainly had looked up to Joe Rogan as a person, particularly his tweet on the Weiner Gate scandal, and his exposure of Carlos Mancia.
If he believes that 2012 is going to be when the world enters an enlightened age, he certainly has a lot of ground to cover in a year. Or maybe smoke more weed, cause he really hasn't had enough...
Howie? Probably still angry over Yakko owning him in Animaniacs.
Always seems like the comedians I feel are the most enlightened to start, always end up saying the dumbest things. But I think now that the major "bad press" is only coming from sports fans and comedians, both whom people hardly take seriously including themselves, it truly is saying something in the way Anthrocon has progressed.
Hopefully the city of Pittsburgh can implement a plan to increase the occupancy of downtown, the big question is I'm wondering if they even want to. I mean, they scheduled a visit from the president, a major league baseball game, and a UFC fight in the same weekend as the furry convention which brings millions into their city and they knew their hotels would be booked up quickly? I think there's something amok in the Pittsburgh logistics department.
So I just went through Rogan's tweets, seems he had to go the defensive after that tweet.
What I thought was really cool was seeing it on a local Tulsa, OK news channel! The newscasters's responses were priceless. The two females thought that it looked kind of cute, while our male caster was a bit wierded out by it all. Unfortunately I didn't take note of the channel (either 6 or 8). The fandom is certainly beginning to get noticed.
I'm a bit confused by your pull quotes, Green Reaper.
"They're mostly harmless. Mostly." and "They're not sex freaks. It's kind of hard to tell, we took years to figure it out ourselves, but they're not."
Not quite sure what you mean; they never said the things you quoted. Maybe they meant them, but I don't know the sources concerned well enough to say that.
I'm trying to be funny and failing miserably, okay?
But seriously, if the nicest thing you could find that somebody said about furries was "they don't hurt anybody," uh, not exactly a five star review, now is it? Should have just cut it at "We love furries."
Your two selected quotes are people telling what we don't do (hurt people or have sex, apparently), whether than what we do.
OK! For the record, I wasn't looking for the nicest thing - or the nastiest thing, or even the most accurate thing - but for quotes which characterized the coverage . . . in this case: a) business owners saying how Anthrocon was great for them and b) presenters saying it "really wasn't as bad as they say" (then repeating what "they" said).
I see what you did there. Trollol
The "don't say what we're not" advise is not for the general public, it's for the furries trying to explain it to someone who asks. If the general public is making that statement in a general setting I think it's a bit different then a furry explaining it to their parents.
If Anthrocon was about sex, clearly I did something wrong...
Notice the picture: cameras and fursuiters seem to be attracted to each other somehow!
:D
While cameras and non-suited furries seem to repel, lol.
Boy, there's a "trying to be funny and failing miserable" reply to this comment.
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