Ponycon 2012, or why the newspapers need to look up the word 'journalism'

So, if you browse The Guardian, The Times, or The Sun, you may well have heard about something called UK PonyCon, a convention of My Little Pony lovers descending on the East Midlands Novotel a couple of weeks ago. Hundreds of men, women and children came to meet others who love the candy coloured horses, and of course add to their ever growing herds. I, in fact, was one of them. I’d taken the day off work, saved up a big chunk of cash, and driven up for the event. I was so excited to meet others into the toys for the first time, to make some friends and have fun for two days. Imagine my surprise when I was shown the Guardian article on Saturday morning, which said I was a weird, emotionally stunted oddball for doing so.

Ok, it didn’t actually say that, but it certainly implied it. I saw the photographers milling around while at the con, but I more or less avoided them. Others, I learned later on the PonyCon forums, weren’t so lucky. Some have bemoaned the fact that they were made out to be simple minded, having their comments dramatically chopped down and rearranged to suit the writer’s needs. Soon we had come to realise that the writers had obviously come to the event with their pieces already written in their minds.

This, of course, is shockingly sloppy journalism, but it’s not a one off occurrence. Time and again we have seen pieces appear in the tabloids with almost a complete absence of facts involved. If you learn to read between the lines, it’s not a problem. The problem is that these journalists forget that the soundbites they collect are attributed to real people, people with feelings. The people I’d met at PonyCon were genuinely lovely and friendly, and would fall over themselves to help you out or make you feel at home. To take that trust and do this to them is nothing short of cruel.

Even worse is what happened to the male fans, the ‘Bronies’ (guys who discovered My Little Pony thanks to the newly revived cartoon). Two seemed to get the most flack, made out to be strange and a little bit creepy for their interest in what is a traditionally ‘girly’ cartoon. The Guardian declares ‘Men in tiaras join UK’s biggest My Little Pony fans’, but it’s almost a complete falsehood. There was one man wearing a MLP headband, because he’d won it in a game of Pinch the Parcel earlier in the day. The Sun claims that they had come to drink and cause trouble, which is, as far as I’m aware, an outright fabrication.

This, quite frankly, is outright sexism. Every Brony I met was fantastic, but to read the papers you’d think they were dangerous weirdoes. If this criticism were aimed at the women attending, there’d be complete outrage. How is it ok to smear these men’s names like this?

At the end of the day, there isn’t much we can do. We can write in and complain about how we were represented, but we will be written off as whining oddballs who need to grow up. The way the papers see it, they went to go and investigate a puff piece, something they can slide in between the horrors of the world that they are reporting on and say, ‘Look at these freaks! You’re ok because you’re normal. Don’t you feel better about yourself?’ The sad truth is that the readers lap it up. If you don’t believe me, just check out the comments on those articles. According to them I must be stupid, single (like that’s a failing), jobless (ditto) and just ridiculous.
I know I’m ok, so I can rise above it. This kind of biased reporting is not ok though, even on ‘lighthearted’ pieces like these. It doesn’t matter who you speak to, if you mis-represent them you’re causing them more distress than you realise.