For The Folks Freaking Out About Yesterday’s Press Release, This Is For You.

I swear, there’s a couple of joykillers in EVERY SINGLE GROUP OF PEOPLE, amirite?

Yesterday, a press release came out about the launch of our brand new website, and all the fun future plans we have for the Chicks On The Right going forward. If you missed it, you can read it right here. The headline read as follows:

I shared that link to my personal FB page and tagged Daisy in it, because we are super stoked about how awesome our newly relaunched website looks, and about the fact that we’re now in a position to be able to pay the fabulous writers who’ve been part of this site on a purely volunteer basis for a couple of years now (although it’s not NEARLY enough $$ for the amazing work they do), and about the fact that we plan to launch a newsletter and do more meet and greets. There’s a lot to be excited about!

But because we exist in a world filled with people who want to be mad and outraged about something all the time, and because those people always manage to find ways to kill the joy wherever that joy rears its head, there were naysayers. People who decided to POUNCE on the headline and make up imaginary things to be aggrieved about.

One such person decided to weigh in – again this is on my personal FB page where I happily and joyfully shared the plans Daisy and I have for our business. Part of this is my fault for having accepted a friend request from someone I don’t actually know. But mostly it’s the fault of the joykiller herself, for not having basic manners.

I’m not a doxxer, so I have no intention of trying to dump on this person publicly by name. I’ll just call her Sharla. Sharla’s response to the post sharing this press release on my personal FB page was to say this:

“Why only female staff? Not good policy. Period.”

After I looked at Sharla’s response, racked my brain trying to think of how I know her and came up with nothing, I responded.

“Kinda goes with the whole CHICKS ON THE RIGHT thing. “

She replied.

“Actually not. Just the opposite.”

At this point I was getting annoyed. Y’all know me. DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I replied.

“I’d ask you to explain further but honestly can’t imagine caring less about how you think we should run our business.”

I’m on vacation, y’all. I’m in one of the gorgeous places on the eastern coast, I’m having the best week ever, and this press release has got me even more happy, and now this. Daisy decided to enter the fray.

“I’m gonna go ahead and rely on our combined expertise to make these types of business decisions over a random person on Facebook that has no visible work experience. But thaaaaaanks. “

Sharla was mad. She replied, “WoW. Kinda not the response I expected cuz we LOVE you guys BUT…what if your son started a biz and said he was only hiring men. Not good. Oh well…we agree to disagree.”

I have no idea who the “we” is that Sharla was referring to. When reviewing the Likes on Sharla’s page, Chicks on the Right is notably absent. So much for the love. But NO – Sharla doesn’t get to bring my kid into this without me (and Daisy) responding. Daisy said, “I’m pretty sure she’d support him.” And I wrote,

“If my son had a biz called Dudes on the Right I’d assume he’d do the same. I’m actually totally cool with male and female only spaces. That’s not to say we don’t have male contributors from time to time, like the fabulous Christian Toto, and that we don’t contract with an amazing male webmaster, or that we don’t love the male exec producer and male owner of Radio America we work with closely. It means we have a female writing team. How this bothers you remains a mystery.”

And then, out of nowhere, Sharla wrote,

“Poor Rob will be out of job.”

WHIZZAH WHUZZAH? How did Rob become a part of this story? Rob, for those of you who may be new here, was the Chicks on the Right producer when the Chicks on the Right show was on local radio in Indianapolis. Once Daisy moved to Texas, Rob became my co-host on the Mock and Rob show on the same station for a year until I left to be a full time Chick with Daisy. Rob has never been employed by us or in any way part of the Chicks on the Right brand, which we started in early 2009. We were all employed by the radio station at one time together. That’s it.

So I said as much, writing, “Rob has never has anything to do with the COTR business. We worked at the same radio station in the past. That’s it.” Daisy also replied, “Rob doesn’t work with us or for us. He’s never been a COTR, and we haven’t worked together in almost two years. You obviously don’t listen to us. Yikes.”

Sharla replied, “Doing what you believe is right, and the ability to do so is the American way. Seriously, good luck with the new endeavour (sic). Not about Rob…who always made us chuckle. It’s a hiring program, I wud think you ordinarily wouldn’t support a sex- orientated one but whatever. As I said good luck! Yanno we love you guys and opinions. Which is why the hiring policy was unexpected. Will follow you always. Buy (sic), seriously think about your statement re. Hiring women only. Carry on!”

Oh. We’re a “hiring program” now, apparently. This is news to us.

I can’t believe this required stating out loud, but it did, so I stated it.

“Nowhere in that presser did it mention a policy. You are reading waaaaay too much into a headline.”

Because here’s the thing. We don’t HAVE a policy about hiring. We are simply starting to modestly pay for the work our volunteer writing team has done for the past couple years. That’s it. As I stated earlier, we work with a buncha guys. We love guys. We’d totally consider hiring guys in the future if we continue to grow. But right now, we’re proud of the fact that we’re an all-female COTR team. It’s built right into our name, even. And we make no apologies.

But Sharla could NOT LET IT GO.

“Just a final comment here: A. We love you gals. B. Been fans for years. C. Will always follow you because you are funny, interesting and open our eyes to political issues which we pretty much agree with. D Keep up the good work E.Just disagree with this policy. F. Keep up the good work!”

I’ll give her points for massive passive-aggressiveness. I mean, throwing judgments into the midst of a bunch of compliments is peak b*tch.

I responded, “And a final response. THERE IS NO POLICY.”

Turns out that her final comment wasn’t her final comment. SURPRISE!

“Your article leadin…….The Chicks on the Right Launch New Website, Hire All-Female Staff, Commit to Events Across the Country. This new campaign comes in response to exploding popularity and record engagement.”

Um….ok? Not sure what that meant, so I said as much.

“So obviously I know what the article says – it’s the subject of this post. I’m not sure why you’re saying the lead-in back to me. For some reason, you’re upset that the female writers who’ve been volunteering for us for the past couple of years are now going to be paid, you’re upset that Rob has never been part of our COTR brand, and you’ve conjured up a male-exclusion policy that exists nowhere except in your own mind and you’ve attributed it to us. Am I missing something?”

Daisy also wrote back to that:

“Hey Sharla – you ever heard of congratulating people during a time of celebration and then moving on with your day? It’s called MANNERS. What you’ve done, conversely, is the equivalent of walking into someone’s home and taken a giant crap on the floor. Did your Mom ever teach you manners? My guess is no.

Bottom line is that we owe you ZERO explanation for the way we run our business, or the way we do anything, frankly. If you don’t like it, you are welcome to find a conservative-run media company that has men and women writers. There are plenty of them out there. A LOT, actually. We know, because we’ve been doing this for almost 14 years and have observed/been part of the landscape.

Last I checked, you’ve never purchased any content/info we’ve provided for you, so you are welcome to see yourself to the door at anytime.

And that’s exactly right. No matter what nefarious ideas people like Sharla have planted into their own minds about our non-existent “hiring policy,” and no matter how much people like her try to dump on our joy and create completely imaginary reasons to be outraged, we’re just gonna keep on doin’ what we do. Celebrating our new website, celebrating the things to come, and counting on the people who really DO actually follow us and DO know what’s going on to join us for the ride. It’s gonna be fun!