HLN host and The View panelist Joy Behar and actress Cynthia Nixon received the top honors at the Gay an Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Awards handed out March 13 in New York.  Behar won the excellence in media honors and Nixon received the Vito Russo Award for advocacy by an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media person. The New York Times won the award for best overall newspaper coverage, with the NYT's Frank Rich winning for best columnist, Tara Parker-Pope winning for best newspaper article for "Kept from a Dying Partner's Bedside" and Benoit Denizet-Lewis winning for best magazine article for his NYT magazine piece "Coming Out in Middle School." Best television news segment went to CNN's "Why Will Won't Say the Pledge of Allegiiance" while Rachel Maddow won for best TV news journalism for "Uganda Be Kiddng Me." Outstanding digital journalism article was won by ESPN.com's "We Love You, This Won't Change a Thing'" by John Buccigross who told the story of Brendan Burke's coming out to his father U.S. Olympic hockey coach Brian Burke. Brendan died in a February car crash. The award was shared with AfterElton.com's  "Why Can't You Just Butch Up? Gay Men, Effeminacy, and Our War with Ourselves" by Brent Hartinger. Best Spanish language newspaper article went Pilar Marrero of La Opinion to "Mas familias de dos papás o dos mamas" for a story on adoption by same-sex couples while Univision and Telemundo divided up the outstanding Spanish-language television journalism awards.

In anticipation of SportsGrid, Mediaite's upcoming sports baby (babies having babies!), we've decided to count down our list of the top 25 most influential sports bloggers, writers, and tweeters currently shaping the online sports narrative. (more...)

ESPN has finally realized the ultimate way to connect with its fan base - throwing a house party. Still riding the wave of the undying phenomenon that is Fantasy Sports, the network is going one step further in engaging their Fantasy Footballers at the most crucial time of their year (the draft): local events and draft parties! (more...)

As the New York Yankees completed a dominating four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox last night, ESPN was experimenting with a new technology - one that takes on extra significance in light of last week's rigid internal memo clamping down on social media. ESPN told Mediaite the "specific tools and implementations are in development" for greater incorporation of social media into ESPN.com and beyond, and last night that plan took effect. How did it go? (more...)