I knew it. Right away, I found something that annoyed me enough to bitch about.

Yesterday, KUER-FM’s RadioWest program (which I believe is syndicated regionally), focused on the Brokeback Mountain/Larry H. Miller debacle and included commentary from GLBT Community Center of Utah executive director Valerie Larabee, among others.

I didn’t hear the program myself, but a reliable friend told me that midway through the discussion Larabee said something along the lines of, “I haven’t seen the movie myself, but…”

HUH?!

If the information I received is accurate, that is one of the most annoying things I have ever heard.

I’m sure Valerie Larabee’s a very busy person, but, to paraphrase my friend, the leader of a community center should be intimately, personally familiar with one of that community’s most important cultural events.

And I think it goes without saying that should especially be the case when you’re going to be interviewed about it.

Isn’t that just common sense?

And yes, I know that Larabee was probably on the show mostly to talk about her organization’s thoughts on the LHM cancellation and on the “boycott” they organized, rather than about the content of the movie itself. But how is she supposed to do even that effectively without knowing the material about which the Center is so passionately up in arms?

I also know she probably wasn’t given much advance notice of the interview, but knowing RadioWest, I’d bet it was at least 24 hours - enough time to cancel a meeting or dinner or whatever and catch the movie the show was focused on.

At the very least, it sounds like Larabee needs a refresher in savvy media relations. Why not refer RadioWest to someone qualified who’d also actually seen the movie? I know one such Center board member who would’ve done an excellent job on the show. Or, if all else fails, fake it, fake it, fake it; don’t admit, on-air, you don’t know what you’re talking about, and definitely not once you’re already halfway through the program. I can only imagine what the RadioWest producers thought when they heard Larabee say she hadn’t seen the movie.

I was all set to send in my letter to the editor about Gayle Ruzicka telling the Deseret News, “It’s [Brokeback Mountain] such a terrible show…” when we all know SHE hasn’t seen it.

But now, I don’t feel particularly comfortable complaining about Gayle’s uninformed comments when Valerie has apparently done a similar thing, just on the other side of the issue.