Y’all won’t believe who showed up in my inbox after last week’s paper hit the streets. Oh, wait…I already spilled the beans with the headline, didn’t I? Anyway, it took me going in the paint about them giving the silent treatment to me and my coworker. After my Negro spiritual about how they’ve dusted us as a publication for months, they finally hit me back and had this to say:
“Hi – your outlet has been approved for 1 photo pass. The tour cannot accommodate your review ticket, however, so you will need to purchase.”
Thanks? (question mark is used to imply backhanded tone). So what is the opposite of payola – because that’s what went down. In my opinion, one of two things happened that led to US having to PAY to pump THEIR TOUR up. Either they didn’t think enough of us to give us media tickets or AEG waited so late to follow up with them (and probably never would have had they not been put on blast) regarding our repeated responses that the tour had released any tickets they had on hold specifically for media.
I’m gonna go ahead and go with the latter. But I do have something positive to report about them as an organization. Plenty of folks came to me after I went public saying that they are not racist – that they are equal opportunity when it comes to being rude and inconsiderate. Good to know.
Hopefully they’ll see the major coverage we gave to the show – that came on our own dime because of its interest to our readers – and deem us worthy for credentials…again, I have my doubts.