"No offense, that's just how I was raised..."

I admit it: I am a sucker for PerezHilton.com. Who can resist less-than flattering photos of celebrities hilariously defaced via MS Paint?

This is the part where I beg you to summon what little respect you have left for me and read on.

Mario Lavandeira, better known by his pen name: Perez Hilton, has managed to use his blog as a platform for the movement for marriage equality. Perez Hilton recently served as a judge in the Miss USA pageant, and had written the question that was posed to finalist Miss California regarding whether she felt more states should follow Vermont's example by legalizing gay marriage. She never said whether or not more states should legalize gay marriage, as the question asked, but instead stated that she was raised to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. She qualified her response with a half-hearted "No offense!", though Perez Hilton is openly gay and was certain to be offended by her advocacy of discrimination. Her response actually elicited boos from the audience, perhaps for the first time in pageant history. I personally feel that her response was atrocious, but that is a simple difference of opinion.

PerezHilton.com takes pride in being "Hollywood's Most Hated Web-Site!". By interjecting his own comedic commentary into typical celebrity coverage, 'Perez Hilton' has made his brand a household name. He has been so effective in thrusting this issue into the spotlight of media coverage because his site is already so well known. People want to know his opinion even more than he wants to tell it to them, which is pretty hard to believe. The fact that Perez Hilton wrote the fateful question that Carrie Prejean wasn't smart enough to answer diplomatically made it exponentially more interesting than if someone else had posed the question. His character and his platform made this event as newsworthy as it was.

What is remarkable about this scandal is that PerezHilton.com covered the ensuing spectacle relentlessly, and in doing so seems to have given the campaign for gay marriage serious momentum. I feel that his coverage thrust the issue into the public eye. The media tends to cover entertaining news and scandal- PerezHilton.com specializes in scandal and gossip- and the fact that Mario Lavandeira played such a prominent role in the scandal illustrates the increased influence bloggers have on the media and the shaping of current events. PerezHilton.com almost primarily featured other mentions of Carrie Prejean (Miss California) in the media and featured clips of his own appearances on prominent talk shows. This appears to be an example of a blogger influencing political policy changes. Since the incident and the media blitz following, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed legislation legalizing gay marriage, the Maine State Senate passed similar legislation, the US House of Representatives passed the Mathew Shepard Act, and Iowa upheld its recent legalization of gay marriage and began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

My point is, the involvement of a blogger made an insensitive comment by a pageant contestant into a scandal. His involvement caused the overwhelming mainstream media coverage of the incident, and that mainstream media coverage caused politicians to speed up processes already in motion in response to public interest.

I find it fascinating that a gossip blogger has come to wield such power over the political discourse. This serves as further proof that the internet and the blogosphere are dramatically revolutionizing the way we consume and make use of information made available to us.